A Spoonful of Sheffield Silver.

[Kalfred]

You can not view an auction in England or look to buy solid silver teaspoons on line without seeing a myriad made by Sheffield silversmithing concerns, Bradburys, Cooper Brothers and Walker&Hall to name just 3 of many. That said many of these spoons will have been made in the later 19th and the 20th centuries. What you certainly do not often see for sale are teaspoons from the 1st quarter of the 19th century. Here are some photos of my latest acquisition. One or 2 people, excluding me, may find them of interest.

 

This is an almost 200 year old teaspoon, shiny but tatty and made by a very small Sheffield silversmithing concern. Its silver worth is about is about £5 and before covid your local jeweller might have given you £2.50 as melt for it. What a waste of history? Below is an edit  of this spoons hallmarks and the start of that history.

We have 3 pictorial marks and they all mean something. "Silverophiles" can skip this bit. My spoon's "standing lion" mark is the mark put on English silver to guarantee the spoon is solid silver and has a minimum content of 92.5% silver metal (sometimes modern silver jewellery has the same numbers 925 found on it, expressing silver content as parts per 1000). That "head" mark is the "duty mark" and confirms the silversmith has paid his government tax on the items he has made. Tax was "confirmed" via this mark from 1784 until 1889-90. The "head" was the "in reign" Monarch's head and changed a little while after the incumbent's death. The head on my spoon is a man so the spoon was definitely made before Victoria came to the throne in 1837. If you know your Kings and Queens this can be a rough guide to a solid silver antique item's age. The third one of my spoons hallmarks carries a letter, a date letter, that can be referenced in books or online. The "runs" of letters, need to change in cycles, as an alphabet is finite . So you have runs in capitals, lower case letters, gothic letters, old English etc. running in alphabetical order except in Sheffield, particularly up to the time when my spoon was made. The date letter on my spoon is a "U" in capital style, the date letter for the year before was "Z" and for the year after it was a lower case "a", and that "a" was in fact the start of a correct alphabetical order run. The Sheffield Silver Guild also did something else different from other main English Silver Guilds. All the Guilds a had a shield hallmark with some image on, that denoted their "City", so it would be known where a silver item was made and hallmarked. The image Sheffield used was a "crown" so they had a punch that marked a "crown" on their assayed silver items. Additionally, and unlike the other centre, they used punches that incorporated a crown together with the year date letter. That is the type of punch that was used on my spoon with a crown over a "U" and and that punch was used in 1823.

Now we can concentrate on the last mark on my spoon. The mark of its maker or in this case its partnership of 2 makers. The mark of "IW" over "IR" was registered  by "John Whip" and "John Rose" with the Sheffield Silver Guild in December 1822. This information was from the web site "silvermakersmarks.co.uk". Anybody who is a fan of "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" will remember "J" has only come into general use in recent times. The address given for the partnership was "Cross Burges Street, Sheffield". We do know a little information about John Whip (Whipp may also have been used). John Whip seems to have been from York and served a 7 year "apprenticeship" with a well known silversmithing concern there, becoming free in 1806. There is little concrete evidence on what Whip did before moving to Sheffield circa 1822 but likely earnt a living working as a "journeyman" for other established York silversmiths. There is even less known about John Rose but he could have been the Sheffield man in the partnership which seemly ended quite quickly. The only items noted as made by Whip and Rose have had date letters for "Z" or "U" and the date letters actually changed  in July. July was when the "Wardens" who were responsible for the "honesty" of the Silver Guild were elected, so possibly the Whip-Rose partnership may have lasted for less than 2 years.
Nothing irrefutable was offered for John Rose by censuses. The 1841 census (the first one) was possibly 18 years after the partnership so much could have changed. Sheffield Indexers' trade directories do have 2 possible John Roses associated with "silver" but of course neither could be the correct John Rose.

    
1833     Rose, John (, silver polisher).
             Address: 27 Howard Street, Recorded in: Whites History & Directory of Sheffield                                              1841     Rose, John (~, Silver Polisher).
             Address: 76 Howard Street, Recorded in: Henry & Thos. Rodgers Sheff & Roth Directory
1841     Rose, John (~, Silversmith).
             Address: Hallamgate, in 1841.Recorded in: Henry & Thos. Rodgers Sheff & Roth Directory

This last entry looks the likely John Rose but even that is not very helpful. I understand  that a "John Rose" alone, silver mark was not registered at the Sheffield Guild. He could have been a journeyman silversmith working for a larger silversmithing concern that was based in Sheffield. Thomas Bradbury was in business at that time and Aaron Hadfield was also one of probably many "fruit knife" makers, using silver blades in their knives who possibly could give employment.  So not much definite information on John Rose silversmith of Sheffield. Can the Forum fill in more of the history please?  
Just a final heads up
   

Kalfred

 

[Kalfred]

Hello again, a little while ago I bought myself another spoonful of earlyish Sheffield silver. This time it was a lightweight condiment spoon. See the pictures below.

The close up of the hallmarks shows the spoon has another one of those Sheffield silver marks with the combined date letter and crown guild mark. The date letter is "S" and indicates this bit of silver was assayed by the Sheffield Guild for silversmiths in 1807, making it 16 years older than my teaspoon.

The maker's mark on this spoon is the "N.S.& Co." and this Sheffield mark belongs to "Nathaniel Smith & Co". Sounds a bit modern to me but is referenced on "silvermakersmarks.co.uk" as: 

                   Nathaniel Smith & Co    Sheffield silversmith     1781-1808 (mark registered Aug 1780) 

The mark is found on a very wide range of silver items in addition to spoons (candlestick, chamberstick, creamer, decanter label, mug, teapot, teapot stand, tongs).
No address is given with that entry but there is a close dated reference (1787) in the Sheffield Indexers for: 

                       Smith, Nathaniel (, silver cutlers manuf silver plated goods (& Co)).
                                Address: Wain Gate, (Recorded in: Gales & Martin Directory of Sheffield - 1787)

The silversmithing dates of "1781-1808" for Nathaniel Smith & Co are early for Sheffield as the Sheffield hallmarking centre was only brought into being in 1773 and prior to 1781 Nathaniel Smith had been in a trading amalgamation with others under the name of "Richard Morton & Co".  The site "silvermakersmarks.co.uk" gives the latter's working dates as "1773-1809". Richard Morton & Co, did in fact concern, Richard Morton, Thomas Warris, John Winter, Samuel Roberts, John Elam, Thomas Settle, John Eyre and "my spoon's" Nathaniel Smith. These Sheffield "silverworkers" had set up their "company" with the main aim of the association being for "manufacturers to fix selling prices for their goods to create a healthy, competitive market in the city". I think this late 18th century "company" idea may well have been called a "cartel" in the 20th and 21st century and possibly be illegal.

The Nathaniel Smith Company was said to be founded in 1780 which coincides with the registration of his silver mark at the Sheffield Assay office, but "Smiths" were not just involved in hallmarked silversmithing but also produced items in Old Sheffield Plate. This was using an early material that preceded electroplated silver plate for making a cheaper item, normally made in silver. "Smiths" were known for the manufacture of high quality domestic metalwork such as candlesticks, cruet sets and objects for making and serving hot drinks. In 1784 they did register a pictorial "hand" mark for their Old Sheffield Plate items.  I found a reference on line that other partners in Nathaniel Smith & Co were a George Smith (relative?) and a James Creswick.  Additionally, this reference source stated that Nathaniel Smith, before forming his own company, had also, at some time, been a partner in Samuel Roberts & Co, another name previously noted in Richard Morton & Co. Does anybody have extra information? Here are a few more images of Nathaniel Smith & Co work. The tankard seems to have the "hand" pictorial mark on. The candlestick has Sheffield hallmarks with the separate date letter and crown marks and the date letter looks like a styled "o" or "q".  An indication of manufacture in 1793 or 1795.  

  

 

Next, we come to, when did "Nathaniel Smith & Co" end?  When did Nathaniel Smith die? The reference that gave the partnership details gave some added information about the company development. 
In 1793 there was a "spin off" mark and maybe company, Smiths, Knowles, Creswick, with the partners comprising William and George Smith, George Knowles, James Creswick, William Nicholson, Robert Tate and Hewan Hoult. However, we know items with the "N.S.& Co." mark, as with my spoon, were seen up to 1808. By 1810 William Smith, George Knowles and James Creswick were all dead but remaining partners continued as Smith, Tate, Nicholson & Hoult. In 1820 George Smith retired but a company, still featuring the Smith name, continued to produce silver goods up to 1826.

Richard Morton requires an extra note to my mind as he was one of the few Sheffield manufacturers who produced silverware prior to the establishment of the Sheffield Assay Office and was an important late 18th Century silversmith for Sheffield. Described as "Plate workers” their base was at, "Brinsworth Orchard" in Sheffield". He was working in both silver and Old Sheffield Plate and was recorded in 1768 as a working silversmith in partnership with William Clayton. He entered “RM” as his mark on 16 September 1773, possibly in partnership with John Winter but fortnight later the two marks “R.M” and “RM & Co” were entered by Richard Morton, Thomas Warris, John Winter, Samuel Roberts, John Elam, Thomas Settle, John Eyre and Nathaniel Smith who we know from earlier. Richard Morton was a specialist in making Salt Cellars, and in the first year, that the Sheffield Assay office opened 416 Salt Cellars were sent to be hallmarked.

Hallmarks featuring "RM" were registered again at Sheffield in 1781 and production continued until 1809 under Morton's name. Mark changes may have been as a response to changes to the membership of the original association?
 I do wonder where these early pre 1773 Sheffield working silversmiths were sending their silver items to be hallmarked? Was it York, Newcastle, London or even Chester as these seem the then closest assay centres?

For this post I gleaned much of the information from, Museums Sheffield, silvermakersmarks.co.uk and Edward Law's Sheffield Silversmiths paper. I was lucky to find this paper on line when researching Nathaniel Smith & Co and now it is on my "Favs" bar.
There are links now to related posts in our own Forum and also an expanded description of the confusingly named "Old Sheffield Plate" material.

https://www.sheffieldhistory.co.uk/forums/topic/3534-pubs-t-to-z-keepers-picture-links/?do=findComment&comment=113854

https://www.sheffieldhistory.co.uk/forums/topic/16935-the-assay-office-on-leopold-street-in-sheffield-city-centre/?do=findComment&comment=142239

https://www.sheffieldhistory.co.uk/forums/topic/7182-identifying-sterling-silver-old-sheffield-plate-and-epns/?do=findComment&comment=48030

"Old Sheffield Plate" was developed in Sheffield around 1742 by Thomas Boulsover. It is a type of silver plated metal made by fusing a thin layer of silver onto a copper ingot. It was rolled out into sheets and used to make decorative objects that looked like silver but were much cheaper. Initially, manufacturers could only fuse silver to one side of a copper ingot so when making things like saucepans the silver plated side was on the interior to stop the copper tainting the taste of the contents. Why was it not called "Boulsover Plate", it would have been much less confusing.

Kalfred 

 

 

 

[MartinR]

From the Wikipedia entry for "Company":

Quote

By 1303, the word referred to trade guilds. Usage of the term company to mean "business association" was first recorded in 1553, and the abbreviation "co." dates from 1769.

so "Nathaniel Smith & Co" is an early usage of "&Co", but not particularly early for a company.

[tozzin]

I find it fantastic that someone like Kalfred has such a knowledge of the silver marks and takes a great interest in the Sheffield cutlery trade.

[Kalfred]

Thank you MartinR and tozzin for your additions and comments to the post. Tozzin you made me a bit "red-faced" though.
I went back to Sheffield Indexers but only found the 3 entries shown below, possibly, relating to other original members of "Richard Morton & Co". You can see that Thomas Settle does have a  "Brinsworth's Orchard" address.

 
Eyre, John (, cutlers (& Co.)).
                            Address: China Square, in 1787.
                                           Recorded in: Gales & Martin Directory of Sheffield - 1787.
Roberts, Samuel (, cutlers).
                             Address: Union Street, in 1787.
                                              Recorded in: Gales & Martin Directory of Sheffield - 1787.
     Settle, Thomas (, cutlers (& Co.)).
                             Address: Brinsworth's Orchard, in 1787.
                                                Recorded in: Gales & Martin Directory of Sheffield - 1787.

Kalfred
 

[Kalfred]

Hello I recently saw another N.S & Co  condiment spoon on line. Small about 10 cms in length and weighing less than 7 grams, and again less than £5.00 in silver value. The image is below, with its hallmarks.

 

It is 11 years older than my N.S & Co spoon its date mark is the  gothic lower case "k" under the crown that was used in 1786. That was just the 3rd year after the Monarch's head duty mark was used to indicate tax had been paid on the silver. This is the expected George III head and 1786 was also just 13 years after the start of hallmarking by the Sheffield Assay Office. This is the 1787 Directory entry in "Gales & Martin Directory of Sheffield" for "Nathaniel Smith & Co" and a few other of those early Sheffield silversmiths.

Note the name of "Thomas Law" in the above list, another well known early Sheffield silversmith.

By the way little spoon pictured changed hands for more than 10 times its silver value. A very wanted collectable item of early Sheffield silver. Get looking in your great Grandma's cutlery draw and see if you can find another. 
Kalfred