posted 08-02-2006 07:56 AM            

Hi,

I have just been given a Viners Ltd cutlery set in a wooden canteen can any one tell me what years they were in production
The knifes have Viners ltd Sheffield Made the spoons are marked 3dwts Viners Ltd Sheffield epns A1
The forks as above except they read 5 dwts
The knifes are stainless steel with bone like handles.

Thanks

posted 08-03-2006 05:30 PM            

The story on Viners is they are said to have been founded by a family of travelling salesmen. I am not sure of the exact year they started making silver plated objects other than by 1912 they were operating out of Bath Street in London. Likely they started up within a few years before then. They bought out some companies over the years as they expanded but in 1982 they went bust. Their name was bought by another London company at that time.

Your flatware set seems to be an example of their earlier work rather than something more recent.

The 3 dwts and 5 dwts markings stand for 3 penny weights and 5 penny weights. This is a vague indication on the quality of the silverplating and stands for the amount of pure silver that was used to plate two dozen forks or two dozen spoons. Relative to some other makers this is a bit on the light side.