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Author	Topic: Sheffield plate?
lavrenkale Posts: 4 Registered: Jan 2005	posted 01-17-2005 12:03 AM I recently acquired a pair of candlesticks with rather ornate rams heads and garlands. The hallmarks are: IT / lion / crown / and an old world F. I believe they are Sheffield plate? The removable top dip thingy has G:A & Co. with the lion. c/B George Ashworth & Co? Here are a few pictures. I hope that they help. Any information is greatly appreciated. best. j IP: Logged
PhilO Posts: 166 Registered: Jul 2004	posted 01-17-2005 02:43 AM The hallmark is for sterling rather than plate and is for Sheffield, 1774. Jackson (p442) gives IT as J. Tibbitts, but with no other information. J. Tibbitts (from another source) is Joseph Tibbitts. GA&Co is certainly George Ashworth & Co. Phil IP: Logged
adelapt Posts: 418 Registered: May 2003	posted 01-17-2005 03:20 AM Style just right for 1774, the second year Sheffield Assay Office operated.Quite desireable stuff! IP: Logged
swarter Moderator Posts: 2920 Registered: May 2003	posted 01-17-2005 12:30 PM Patrick is correct that the pieces are sterling and made in Sheffield in 1774-5. The Sheffield assay office was extablished in 1773, so your candlesticks are among the earliest objects marked there, although unofficial marks were used by Sheffield smiths at earlier dates. The Ashworth mark on the drip rings was registered in 1773; there is no registered mark with the IT initials on the candlesticks until 1778, when Joseph Tibbitts entered his mark, but it lacks the pellet in your mark. No other maker in that time frame is shown in the tables in Jackson III as having entered a mark with those initials; a John Turner was among the original founders of the "Company," but no mark is shown for him. So, unless someone else can come up with another reference that includes that mark, the maker of the candlesticks themselves will remain unknown. The Sheffield assay office was not a large one, and silver marked there, particularly in the earlier years, is not particularly abundant. Nice find. [This message has been edited by swarter (edited 01-17-2005).] IP: Logged
Patrick Street Posts: 24 Registered: Sep 2003	posted 01-18-2005 12:37 AM The Sheffield Assay Office Register 1911 (2nd edn reprinted 1989) at page 5 shows the mark IT with a pellet between the letters. This mark was registered at Sheffield on 25 May 1778 by plate worker Joseph Tibbitts of Gibralter. [This message has been edited by Patrick Street (edited 01-18-2005).] IP: Logged
lavrenkale Posts: 4 Registered: Jan 2005	posted 01-18-2005 07:20 AM Thank you all for so much information! I acquired these quite by accident, so I am unprepared to know what to do with them now. If Joseph Tibbitts was a plate worker, could these be Sheffield Plate? Was any plate marked with traditional hallmarks? There are definitely wear marks that could be consistent with a "plate" look. The base has a felt type of material covering the bottom and inside they seam to be filed with some type of composite material giving them weight. Is this consistent with the time period? Could these be fake?... j IP: Logged

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