posted 02-14-2003 04:59 PM            

Hello all,

This mark appears on what certainly seems to be a genuine Old Sheffield Plate serving tray. The distinctive color of OSP is there, with the copper bleeding through, and there are visible hammer marks around the edges. The mark, however, is a stumper. On the left is a crossed-keys, a mark sometimes found on OSP. The middle mark is two Olde English initials, likely the maker's. It is a bit too rubbed, though, to identify the letters exactly. Finally, we have a crowned leopard's head, which I have never seen on a piece of OSP. We know that Sheffield platers sometimes used a crown in their marks, at least until the practice was banned around 1897. I wonder if a London maker might similarly have used a facsimile of a London town mark?

Any ideas would be appreciated!

posted 02-14-2003 11:15 PM            

I flipped the photo 180 and enlarged it a bit (which appears to put the cross keys in a proper shield) and the London town mark looked to me like maybe a monarch's head in an oval?

Pseudo-hallmarks? Enterprising retailer perhaps? Maybe in Canada?

Do the marks look like these (Matchbox: Crown and keys?) (which are also unidentified)?