Sweetheart brooch - help please UK/Irish hallmarks

phaethon

Hi all,

Here is one of my gold gilded silver brooch - the Edward 7th.
Biggest mystery - whilst the marks show the Birmingham mint, the shape around the letters is wrong for that period and the 'D' is totally the wrong shape. A mystery! I presume it's made around 1901-1910. Can someone help to ID the hallmarks.

Also does anyone knows what the brooch like this would be worth (especially if it's turnes out as an Irish maker)?

coylemj

Very strange indeed! There was a lower case 'D' in Birmingham in 1903 as you've probably discovered but that definitely looks like upper case.

Are you sure it's the Birmingham anchor? It's not 100% clear in the photo.

I suspect the item was given as a gift by the King on some kind of formal or informal visit. In the case of a visit for example to France, the ambassador and the senior people in the embassy would have all been given personal gifts by the King, though not necessarily handed by him in person to the recipient

As is still the case nowadays, there would have been a hierarchy of gifts. Back in the time of Edward VII, something like a gold cigarette case would have been near the top and that tie pin (or maybe it's a lapel brooch for a lady?) would have been lower down the scale. Perhaps it was a gift to the butler of a country house at the end of a weekend shooting party or maybe it was given to a minor embassy official during a foreign trip.

zimmermania

phaethon wrote: »

Hi all,

Here is one of my gold gilded silver brooch - the Edward 7th.
Biggest mystery - whilst the marks show the Birmingham mint, the shape around the letters is wrong for that period and the 'D' is totally the wrong shape. A mystery! I presume it's made around 1901-1910. Can someone help to ID the hallmarks.

Also does anyone knows what the brooch like this would be worth (especially if it's turnes out as an Irish maker)?

Your badge or pin was made in Birmingham in 1978 and all the marks are exactly correct for that year,i do not know offhand who the maker is and it is probably worth very little i am sorry to say.

phaethon

Thank you very much! Just don't understand why to do a brooch 1978 for a king who died 1910.

Here is one more hallmark tyo chew



William Briggs & co S (Sheffield)

zimmermania

phaethon wrote: »

Thank you very much! Just don't understand why to do a brooch 1978 for a king who died 1910.

Here is one more hallmark tyo chew



William Briggs & co S (Sheffield)

silver plate,not sterling.