The business was established in 1781 as gilt button makers and was carried on by James Deykin and William Henry Deykin until 1848. The firm was active in its factory, Venetian Works, 5 and 6 Jennens Row, Dale End, Birmingham, mainly as buttons manufacturer, until 1854 when production of electroplated wares was introduced.

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"A WORD per MONTH"

In this column we present an abstract from a page of the "What is? Silver Dictionary"
courtesy of
 

TRADEMARK GEOGRAPHY IN BRITISH SILVERPLATE

The purpose of a trademark (or trade mark) is to be a recognisable symbol of a specific manufacturer or product.
In the 19th century the use of trademarks was a practice largely followed by British silverplate manufacturers.
Being the base metal and the silvering process substantially similar in all the factories, any manufacturer tried to enhance the quality and the specificity of his product by attributing a name that could attract the customer's interest.
A widespread method was to mark the product with a trademark inspired to geographical locations giving the impression to have used silver of that provenance in the manufacture.
In reality, in few cases as "Nevada" and "Potosi" the place was renowned for its silver mines. In most other cases the trademark referred to British and Empire locations or to South American and European countries.
Daniel & Arter of Birmingham was the leader of this practice, using the wider array of "geographical" trademarks and probably the best known of all, Nevada Silver....
MORE...

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"A SILVERSMITH per MONTH"

In this column we present marks, information and history of silversmiths and silver manufacturers.
This column is published under the kind permission of Giorgio Busetto's website

STUART DEVLIN

Stuart Leslie Devlin (9 October 1931 - 12 April 2018) was born in Geelong, Victoria, Australia, and became an art teacher, specializing in gold and silversmithing. In 1957, he obtained a post at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology and studied for a Diploma of Art in gold and silversmithing.
In 1958 he was awarded scholarships to study at the Royal College of Art in London where he excelled and, as a result, obtained a Fellowship by the Harkness Foundation of New York. He chose to spend the two-year fellowship at Columbia University in the U.S.
In 1962, he returned to teach in Melbourne, Australia and in 1964 he won a competition to design the first decimal coinage for Australia.
In 1965 he moved to London where opened a small workshop.
Devlin and other silversmiths, as Gerald Benney, were disenchanted with designing anonymously for big manufacturing firms, which were in decline, and they set out on their own. They focused on their own style and had a personal commitment to the marketing of their own productions.
This marked the beginning of Devlin's true style which obtained great success with the idea of limited editions, the most popular of these were the surprise Easter eggs and Christmas boxes which have now become collector's items... MORE...

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"A CREST per MONTH"

In this column we present images and descriptions of Crests and Mottoes of British, Irish and Scottish families as engraved on silver items.
This column is published under the kind permission of Giorgio Busetto's website

FAMILY CRESTS: LIST OF NAMES

ILLUSTRATED DIRECTORY OF FAMILY CRESTS

BAIRD

The crest of Baird families:
Sir David, Baronet, of Newbyth, East Lothian
Sir William James Gardiner, Baronet., of Saughton Hall, co. Edinburgh, Scotland
Sir John Kennedy, of 31, Cadogan Place, London
The Latin motto is "Vi et virtute" (By strength and valour).
The crest is described as "a boar's head erased".
The crest has been found on an unmarked Old Sheffield Plate claret jug.

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"A YEAR per MONTH"
FROM SHEFFIELD ASSAY OFFICE REGISTER
- 1789 -

This table is obtained from The Book of Entries of the Names, Places of abode and Marks of the several Silversmiths and Plate Workers residing in Sheffield, or within twenty miles thereof, who are required to send their goods to the Assay Office, lately established in the Town of Sheffield by an Act of Parliament lately passed in the Thirteenth Year of the Reign of King George the Third intituled:

An Act for appointing Wardens and Assaymasters for
Assaying Wrought Plate in the Towns of Sheffield
and Birmingham

YEAR 1789

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Closing our June 2018 edition of ASCAS Newsletter I hope you have appreciated its content.
Your comments, suggestions and advice will be of great help.

My thanks to Ray Baylis, Marc Faygen, Michelle Horton and Don Huestis for their precious contributions.

Giorgio Busetto
Secretary

DISCLAIMER AND PRIVACY POLICY ASCAS is a community of people having a common interest in antique silver. It is a non-profit association without commercial links. Membership is open to whomever has a true interest in this subject matter. ASCAS has no real property and no fees are requested nor accepted from members. ASCAS keeps in touch with its members only through periodical newsletters, e-mails and web-site updating and ignores and is not responsible for any other activity pursued by its members. Likewise, ASCAS is not responsible for opinions, evaluation and images displayed, and in any form published or supplied for publication, by its members who, in any case, maintain the property of their works and assure the respect of national and international legislation about Intellectual Property. ASCAS does not have the full addresses of its members (only town, country and e-mail address are requested for membership). ASCAS handles and protects with care its members' e-mail addresses, will not disclose the addresses to third parties, will use this information only to reply to requests received from members and for communications strictly related to its activity. These rules are expressly accepted by submitting the membership request. email: silverassociation@yahoo.it       HOME