1820 English Georgian Sterling Silver 61pc Fiddle Thread Shell Flatware Set

Presented is an excellent 61 piece English Georgian sterling silver flatware set. This set is made in the classic Fiddle, Shell and Thread pattern, which has been produced by various makers through the years and is therefore quite easy to match. Each piece is finely engraved on the terminal of the handle with a crest of a talbot (dog) sejant amidst rushes, associated with the Wilkinson name. The crest appears on the back of the handle, typical of early English and European table setting with the pieces turned over, except for the serving spoons, oval soup spoons, and teaspoons, which have the crest on the front of the handle. This set serves 12 with four piece place settings, as well as ten serving spoons and three additional serving pieces.

• 12 Dinner forks—7 3/4 inches long.
• 12 Salad/dessert forks—6 1/2 inches long. (one is more like 6 5/8, one is more like 6 1/4).
• 12 Teaspoons—5 1/2 inches long.
• 12 Oval soup/dessert/place spoon—6 7/8 inches long.
• 10 Serving/table spoons—8 5/8 inches long.
• 1 Master butter/cheese knife—7 1/2 inches long.
• 2 Gravy/sauce ladles—7 inches long.

Each piece is hallmarked with the lion passant for sterling silver, the leopard's head crowned for the city of London, the date letter e for 1820, the duty stamp of King George III's head, and the maker's mark SH, likely for Samuel Hennell, EXCEPT: One salad fork, which has a date letter of o for 1829 and no maker's mark, slightly larger size than the rest; another salad fork, which doesn't have the George III mark and is slightly shorter than the rest; one teaspoon lacking the George III mark, slightly shorter; all the teaspoons lack the leopard's head; one oval soup spoon with the leopard's head without a crown and a date letter p for 1830, maker's mark CB; the master butter and two sauce ladles, lacking the leopard's head.

This set is in excellent overall condition. As noted above, one salad fork and one teaspoon have an old solder repair to the stem; both repairs are very well done, and were really only noticed due to the slightly shorter length and missing duty mark. One of the gravy ladles has a couple of minor dings to the bowl, but these are hard to notice without close, careful inspection. Some of the crests have a little more wear than others, and so are less sharp—that is why we have photographed two examples. The maker's marks appear to have been overstruck or deliberately made less legible in many cases. There are no other repairs, no monogram removals, no damages of any sort.

We are shipping this set with the flatware storage chest in which it originally came to us. This chest is in good shape and has done an admirable job of protecting the set over the years. If you do not wish for this wooden chest to be included, please let us know and we will not ship it, and pass the savings of the cost of shipping on to you.

The total weight for the set is 3038 grams or 107.2 regular ounces.

-jm