Featured c.1884 Birmingham sterling silver scent bottle

I got this as part of a lot of bottles at a local auction a couple of months back.

I was shocked when I saw the marks because I would have thought this auction house would have caught them & put it with another lot that contained about 15 assorted glass lay-down scent bottles many of which had sterling lids.

It is 3" long & weighs 12 grams.

It was made by David & Lionel Spiers. They were located on Hylton Street in Birmingham England. The maker's mark was poorly struck & is hard to read even in person, but thanks to https://www.silvermakersmarks.co.uk/index.htm I was able to decipher it. This site has the ability to use partial marks & is very easy to use.

The mark was used from 1882 to 1879 but the lower case hallmark dates it to 1884.

It is actually marked on the cap & both sides of the bottle.

 

What a lovely little thing!!

 

Oh my, nice find!!!

 

Very nice Peggy

 

awesome.....

 

THAT is BEAUTIFUL!!!!!!!!!!!!​

 

Ooh, superb! Was it in this shining state? They must have been in a hurry when making the lots

 

Thanks, bercrystal, for the mention of my site. The dates which I quote there are confirmed dates for which I have seen the relevant mark rather than absolute working or in-use dates. For the Spiers mark I actually have 1882 to 1894 as my seen-on dates with 1879 being the date of registration.

 

Oh, Peggy, that is such a delicate beauty, gorgeous! The shape caught my eye first, but then I saw the detail in those bands, wow!

 

No, it was quite tarnished. The makers mark (such as it is) & the hallmarks had some real build-up in them. I had to use a Q-tip to clean out the build-up before I could identify them correctly. In fact, I didn't even see the maker's mark until someone pointed it out to me but it took multiple cleanings & close-up photo till I could make it out.

I didn't even look at it when I was previewing because I assumed it was silverplate. This auction house requires one of their employees to open the cases & hand the items to you. So the first time I handled it was when I was unpacking my box of bottles because they wrapped & packed up the bottles.

I could see that there were marks but it wasn't until I got it cleaned up that I saw the anchor mark & realized it was actually sterling.

 

It is an absolutely fabulous site!!

It was recommended by someone here on the forum & I bookmarked it in my favorites.

I really do not think I would have ever ID'd the mark without the help of your site & its wild card option. As you can see the "D&" are totally obscured so the odds of me finding it on my own was unlikely.

 

Excellent cleaning job! It is glorious!!!

 

It does have quite a lot going for it in those 3 inches!!

 

great score Peggy, it is beautiful

what is the 'wild card' option?

 

I actually stumbled on it myself.

Click on "quick maker's marks".

I entered Birmingham (anchor mark) in the "assay town".

I entered 1884 (k mark) in the "date".

As far as the "mark initials" the only thing I could make out was an "L" & an "S" but I knew there was more preceding the "L". However, the maker's marks are listed by the first letters in the mark so I was going to have to go letter by letter. I was about to give up, list it using the information I had & hope for the best.

I decided to see what the quick maker's mark was about & it took me a few tries but when I entered "%ls" with the above information the 3 listings for David & Lionel Spiers came up immediately.

It is like when eBay would let you search with an "*" if you could not make out the whole mark. i.e. temp* for temp-tations dishes so you would get all of the results for listings that included the "-" or left it out.

 

thanks Peggy I've never noticed that option before, I have a couple of pieces that I can't figure out so will give it a try

 

Let me know how it works out for you.

 

lol, I will once I find them, they aren't where I thought I had put them

 

It is amazing how these things can squirm their way around & relocate themselves just to make us look bad.

Have you tried looking where you finally found the lid to the sugar bowl recently?