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 SMP Silver Salon Forums
 American Sterling Silver
 Gorham Versailles pattern
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| Author | Topic: Gorham Versailles pattern |
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silverman1 Posts: 6 |
posted 12-22-2004 05:44 PM
  
Being English I know a lot about eng silver but nothing about american/. I have agorham versailles spoon about 6in long with beautiful cherub and lyre. The marks are lion walking, anchor and old english g=G with STERLING underneath - as the 1890 era. The confusing thing is it has a letter M above ( in a small circle type shape) which dates it to 1880, yet the info in books says the pattern wasnt registered till 1888. Pls can any one help me? regards , arthur IP: Logged |
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IJP Posts: 326 |
posted 12-23-2004 12:46 PM
Hey there, Arthur. I actually don't recall having ever seen any date letters on any piece of Gorham flatware. The mark on your spoon is likely something else. It occurred to me that this mark may be a weight symbol. See Carpenter "Gorham Silver" 1997 revised edition p. 233: "In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries some flatware items were made in as many as five different weights. It was normal practice to stamp symbols for the weights used on the pieces, with the exception of regular weights, which were not marked." If your spoon's "M" mark is a weight symbol, it would indicate "massive" weight, the heaviest available. IP: Logged |
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silverman1 Posts: 6 |
posted 12-23-2004 07:09 PM
Thanks for your quick response. That might explain it , as it weighs nearly 1.5ozs, which i think is fairly heavy for a tea spoon. (even an american one !!)cheers IP: Logged |
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Pinsabigail Posts: 35 |
posted 01-22-2005 08:40 PM
The M actually stands for Medium weight. I believe EH, for Extra Heavy, was the heavyweight. IP: Logged |
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Brent Posts: 1507 |
posted 01-23-2005 10:10 PM
I would not read too much into any of these letter codes on Gorham flatware. You can find all sorts of little stray letters, especially on the bowl and tine backs of ornate patterns like Versailles. I'm sure they had some meaning, but since they seem to have been applied haphazardly it is impossible to know exactly what the significance is. Carpenter's information, while useful some of the time, is simply insufficicent to use as any hard and fast rule. As Sam Hough has determined, even the holloware marking "rules" had exceptions, and were subject to change at any time. Anyway, I would worry too much about the extra marks on Gorham flatware. Brent IP: Logged |
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Dale Posts: 2132 |
posted 01-23-2005 11:16 PM
I agree with Brent. US silver has all sorts of strange marks that have no clear meaning. They most likely were some internal factory code. Which could cover a lot of territory: die stamp used, shipping code, period of time made, indication of technical change, whatever. IP: Logged |
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silverman1 Posts: 6 |
posted 01-24-2005 08:25 PM
Thanks for all your information i really appreciate the help. cheers, arthur IP: Logged |
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