I'd like to ask whether someone with the knowledge or a good book on family crests might provide some info on the item below:
This crest appears on the finial of a twelve plus inch sterling soup ladle made by Thomas Dicks of London in 1805-6. A thread on this ladle including photos is linked below, if interested:
According to another source, three claws are indicative of a lion, four or five a bear, though I've come across three clawed gamb identified as bear and five as lion. In any event, this crest in question may be of lion as opposed to bear.
I tried a hacker work around that allows me to see my "locked up" PB pics, but evidently not everyone else can. So here's the crest in question, posted on a new host:
So once more, might anyone be able to identify the source for this crest? TIA!
Thanks for the effort. I located a cheap copy of Fairbairn's and so have it on order, should be here by next Wednesday, so I can convince myself in the future. In the meantime, I noticed some Eley and Fearn spoons at auction on Fleabay sporting the crest below:
Different base, crown versus vine, but the paw is very similar, which indicates to me some sort of common source and not just a one-off design. Will keep an eye out.
Just received the Fairbairn's book, at a bit under $4 a pound, quite a bargain, I guess. Haven't as yet gone through it completely for my mystery crest, but I noticed the Eley and Fearn crest noted above on plate 126d, number 2. Similar on plate 126, number 2. Will take some time to go through it exhaustively.