posted 01-17-2009 08:14 PM            

My dad bought this piece at auction for stock for his shop and asked for my help tracking down the mark. He is a generalist and doesn't have most of the specialist silver references. I checked every reference I've got, and am stumped. Not only can I not find the mark anywhere, but the piece is apparently marked once on the underside of the top of each handle. This seems a really odd place for the silversmith to mark a piece if he made the whole piece, rather than adding later/replacement handles, but the handles do appear to me to be "right" for the piece and likely original. I suppose a silversmith with OCD might put marks in a hidden place, but I've not seen this before. There is no engraving and no other signs of marks. The piece would seem to date from 1810-40 or so, perhaps? In addition to my American references, I also checked books on Indian silver, Canadian, Cape of Good Hope and Bermuda. I also came up with a couple of Scottish provincial silversmiths (which might make sense here) with known TM marks but unfortunately could not find photographs of those marks. Unfortunately, unless I flew right by it, the mark is still a mystery. Any thoughts?