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Sheffield Silver- James Dixon & Sons

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Hi:

I recently aquired a beautiful piece of Sheffield silver. It is marked with what appears to be a lion on one side, and a horse on the other side, a crown at the top, and perhaps a shield in the center, below that is says James Dixon & Sons, underneath the name it says Sheffield; all this is on a small plaque attached to the wood. It also has J D & S stamps each in a separate small square on one of the hinges. There is a single letter S stamped on another hinge.

It is a large round tray type item. It has greek key etching all the way around. Small beading/ balls all the way around. The center is raised, and has a mirror. The back is made of wood, with hinges that hold the morror in place. It has 4 ball type feet.

I have no idea what this item's true purpose is.

It does not have any marks regarding whether it is electroplated, sterling etc...

It also has the number 400 stamped into one of the hinges.

Any information on age, whether it is likely sterling or electroplate, purpose, value, history etc... would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks so much and HAPPY NEW YEAR!

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Can someone please help I have a 60 piece set of cuttlery I recently purchased It is a Jame Dixon and sons. The forks and spoons have A1 in a circle followed by dixon and then the the trumpet emblem all on the same line, the other side says Rd 863190. The knives say James Dixon and sons with trumpet on top and to the side firth stainless.Does anyone know what date A1 means any help you guys could give give me would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance Nickon

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Can someone please help I have a 60 piece set of cuttlery I recently purchased It is a Jame Dixon and sons. The forks and spoons have A1 in a circle followed by dixon and then the the trumpet emblem all on the same line, the other side says Rd 863190. The knives say James Dixon and sons with trumpet on top and to the side firth stainless.Does anyone know what date A1 means any help you guys could give give me would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance Nickon

 

I hope you have better luck here than I did, nobody even answered my post. I have posted on other sites also and searched all over, and never did find any information on the piece I posted about.

 

I did find a website which hopefully might help you, although it didn't help me at all :( ****I did post a link for you here, but it will not let me post it. If you give me your e-mail address, I can forward the link to you.*** Or you can go to Google, and try searching for Sheffield Hallmarks also the site I found says Online Encyclopedia of Silver Marks, Hallmarks & Maker's Marks

at the top of the page. Maybe this will help in your search. That site seems to have all the letter and number marks which correspond to Sheffield dates. Apparently it makes a big difference what style the letters are.

 

I hope this helps you :)

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I don't think this will help you identify your item, or value your cutlery, but James Dixon was a famous silversmiths and cutlers in Sheffield.

 

If I remember rightly, and accept my apologies if wrong, but I seem to recall Dixon's had serious cash flow problems in the '80s. Nothing to do with mis-management, but more due to a rocketing silver price, i.e. their raw material, creditors who didn't pay their bills and the ill winds of the Thatcher economic recession.

 

I'm not sure whether anyone bought the name, but I think the original company went into receivership.

 

Regards

 

Tazz

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ullabar: If you can send me a picture of your item or give me a link to something similar on the web I can try and help you with more information. From your description it could be many things and I would need to see it to give you more info. It could well be sterling silver but without more information or looking at the item I cant give you any answers.

 

Nickon: A1 isnt a date stamp/mark. It was a general mark put on cutlery to show it was A1, as in the best. the base metal will nickel siver and then silver plated to a high standard/thickness typically 35 microns. Many different cutlery manufacturers used to put A1 on their cutlery but it didnt always meet a specific industry standard as it was the manufacturers responsibility to support the claim of A1.

 

I work in the cutlery and holloware trade so I know a fair amount and would be happy to try and answer any general questions but keep in mind its very difficult to talk about specific pieces with out seeing them.

 

James dixon & sons were a very well known company based in Sheffield and they went bust a number of times. The company who owns the name now is called British Silverware Ltd who are connected with Thessco and the Solpro group. B.S.L. Also own the name Elkington which was another well known trading name.

 

You can always contact the Cutlers Hall on Church Street in Sheffield for more detailed historical and up-to-date information. During their open days they display many different pieces of silverware and the collection is so big it contains at least one piece of silver for every year since records/assay laws began. I highly recommend a visit to the Cutlers hall which is the larget hall outside of London.

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Hello all

I have a canteen of cutlery which is Georgian B / Queen Anne pattern,

however as you can imagine a few bits are missing I need some spoons and (pudding) and dinner forks any help or info would be very gratefully received as I have been searching for about 12 years now

Many thanks Carl

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