Help with identification

[rtmiles16]

Any help would be great. I had to take two pics because of the location of the marks. Their is also an EP electro plated mark at the end I could not get a clean pic of. The markers mark is warn but it looks like the bottom says a name but just cant tell.

[Essexboy Fisher]

Hello, welcome to the forum. I will start you off with the name "Harwood" for the maker's mark. Without a picture of all the marks together, a slightly more distant view, I will have a little guess that it is an item with marks attributed to "Henry Millington Harwood" of Birmingham England.
Fishless

[rtmiles16]

I must have went over the marks three or four times over the last couple days and yet it is clearly Harwood I must be blind. It looks to been an early 1800's piece. What is the stylized A in front of the Sheffield mark. Sorry for the way the pics were, its marked on top of the piece were it hard to take a pic but the marks run stylized A, Sheffield Mark, Markers Mark, Z -guessing the date mark and then an EP mark which I couldn't get a pic of. Thanks a thousand. Todd

[silvermakersmarks]

As Fishless said above we need to see a picture of all of the marks together - and from a bit farther away so that they are in focus. EP, of course, means it is electroplate so normal hallmarking conventions do not apply; i.e. the crown does not signify Sheffield and there is no date letter. Please show us a better picture.

Phil

[Essexboy Fisher]

Hello again Todd, sorry, I was interrupted yesterday (by a hot meal) and was unable to expand on my answer. The surname "Harwood" is well known in the electroplate world and from an early time. "Thomas Harwood", also from Birmingham, is perhaps best known and our Forum main website, has images associated with "Thomas" in its Silverplate Marks section. However your marks, and it would good to see and confirm them, are likely those of "Henry Millington Harwood". It is not quite as simple as that as "H. M. Harwood" has several electroplating concerns on his "curriculum vitae". Before we get to that, there is shown below, an image of a couple marks that may well be similar to your image. They come from a spoon and set of sugar tongs, both obviously electroplated.



Now here is an entry from the "LONDON GAZETTE, JULY 6, 1886"

"NOTICE is hereby given, that the Partnership heretofore subsisting between us the undersigned*

Henry Millington Harwood, Henry Hodson Plante, and Walter Andrew Harrison, carrying on business in partnership at 185 and 187, Newhall-street, Birmingham, and at 12, Hatton-garden, London, as Silversmiths and Electro Plate Manufacturers, under the style or firm of Harwood, Plante, and Harrison, has been this day dissolved, by mutual consent, so far as regards the said Walter Andrew Harrison, who has retired from the firm. All debts due and owing to and by the said late firm will be received and paid by the said Henry Millington Harwood and Henry Hodson Plante, who will continue the business in partnership under the style or firm of Harwood and Plante at the same addresses as heretofore.

—Dated this
30th day of June, 1886.
H. M. Harwood.
Henry H. Plante.
W. A. Harrison.

The 3 person partnership referred to, had started only 1 or 2 years prior to 1886 but H. M. Harwood and. W. A. Harrison had been in a partnership together before that time as Harwood, Sons, & Harrison. You can speculate as to whether Harwood or Harwood and Sons had been an "entity" before that. What we do know is that H. M. Harwood & Henry H. Plante dissolved their partnership in 1892, but there was some residual activity 1894-1899 under the name of Harwood & Son. If the attribution of the "Harwood", "crown" and "Z" marks to "Henry Millington Harwood" is correct then the item in the post may well be from the very late 19th century Harwood & Son period. The website "silvercollection.it" has more information on the "H.M.Harwood" concerns.
In your follow up post Todd, you said you wondered about the crown and letter marks. The electroplating concerns could be competing for business with silversmiths so it might be a good economic strategy to to have marks on items that had similarities to silver marks. Lots of 19th century electroplated cutlery carried these "pseudo hallmark" characters. As you noted there was the "Sheffield" crown mark that is carried on Sheffield Guild hallmarked silver. There was legislation in the British Parliament in 1896, to prevent abuses and avoid confusion, banning the 'crown' symbol on silver plate wares.

Fishless

[rtmiles16]

Wow, thanks for the information. I'm trying to get someone help me with getting a better picture but in general the marks are set up like the ones you posted. Thanks again Todd

[rtmiles16]

OK here is a pick of everything together.

https://i.imgur.com/YmbtLGr.jpg

[dognose]

Please embed your images.

Trev.

[rtmiles16]

[Essexboy Fisher]

Thank you Todd, as you suggested, your marks look a good match to ones in the composite image.
Fishless