WH mark on 1740-1756 Nips

[buckler]

This mark is probably Grimwade No 3885 , listed by him in the unregistered section on page 275.
Seen by Grimwade on a pair of tea-vases of 1743, he tentatively speculates that it could be William Hunter I.

My suspicion , as a buckle collector with a nip and tong collecting wife , is William Harrison .
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The nips have only the WH and the London Lion Passant Guardant mark of 1740 - 1756

[agphile]

Seems a reasonable suspicion to me. One small "however". I have a cursive WH on a pair of 1740s tongs which I have down as probably an early Wm Harrison mark from the missing register. I cannot now remember but I think this may be the actual example quoted on p,205 of David Shlosberg's book as" c.1745, ?earlier mark". Either one of the attributions is wrong or Harrison had two quite different early marks.
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[buckler]

Thanks for the posting - I agree your comments. The proliferation of WH marks , like WC and IS drives me nuts !

I now have many buckles with unidentified WH marks from the lost register period - they cannot all be the same man, can they ?

There is the one above , and three given on
http://www.925-1000.com/forum/viewtopic ... 59&t=17504 ( one incuse, one oval and one cursive)
and another different cursive mark. Of most I have several examples !

Either Harrison broke them on a regular basis and needed frequent replacements or we have at least one unidentified buckle and nips maker out there. Casting skills are vital to both businesses hence many bucklemakers also did nips.

This mark is a bit dubious for William though - found by Grimwade on tea-vases (whatever they were) - it sounds more like a plateworker using raising techniques rather than casting .
I've not seen this mark on a buckle - yet