"ENGLISH STERLING" Cup Mystery Company

Aguest · Post by **Aguest** » Tue Jul 25, 2017 6:43 am

This cup was tested by a professional as Sterling Silver. Why would a company mark this cup as "ENGLISH STERLING" and have a factory code of "122" ??
A true mystery, I have not been able to find any reference to this company, and I guess this might not even be a company at all, maybe it was something a silversmith made on his time off, and was able to mark it this way?

Aguest · Post by **Aguest** » Tue Jul 25, 2017 6:45 am

Aguest · Post by **Aguest** » Tue Jul 25, 2017 6:48 am

The only solution I could come up with, is it possibly an Indian Colonial maker, just based on the design around the base of the cup?

Aguest · Post by **Aguest** » Tue Jul 25, 2017 9:31 am

There is a style of Indian silver called "Kutch" silver and they combined traditional Indian patterns, often flowers and animals in repeating forms, with European styles of hollowware, so this is my best guess at this point, I guess this is sort of a "pseudo hallmark" of a sort of which I have never seen, and cannot find anything like this anywhere....

Post by **dragonflywink** » Tue Jul 25, 2017 10:00 am

It's American, from right around the 1860s, almost certainly produced by John Wendt - not a particularly uncommon mark, most often found with a retailer's mark above...

~Cheryl

Aguest · Post by **Aguest** » Tue Jul 25, 2017 10:35 am

Thank you, very easy to locate another example, but very difficult without being able to link the phrase to Wendt.

AG2012 · Post by **AG2012** » Tue Jul 25, 2017 10:51 am

More examples of John Wendt.
In regard of obliterated retailer`s mark, the quote from elsewhere:

Often times the retailer's name was stamped directly by the manufacturer prior to shipping to the final destination. If the retailer retracted an order, the maker might kill the mark and send the piece on to another seller. Or the goods could be picked up as old stock by a second retailer, who excised the original dealer's indicia.

Aguest · Post by **Aguest** » Tue Jul 25, 2017 11:35 am

This could explain the obliterated mark on a serving piece from Gorham, the "Pattern #55" posts which I made awhile back, if in fact Gorham actually performed this practice in a manner similar to Wendt.

I had noticed an obliterated mark also on a very high end Gorham salt cellars with Putti Cherub Angels fully cast figures, and it was obliterated similar to the Pattern #55 serving piece.

At any rate, thanks for the Wendt information, very informative and I would have been completely lost without this information, was almost sure it was some sort of silver-plate hallmark, but it just looked so convincingly like sterling silver, I kept coming back to the cup, and finally got it.

www.925-1000.com