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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;afantiques, post: 37358, member: 25&quot;]The scribed marks on the base are a retailer&#039;s letter code for the price, stock number plus so many shillings and pence, derived from a ten letter word with no duplicate letters, so each letter can be a number. In this case the two prices are probably cost and retail prices.</p><p><br /></p><p>If the drawing accurately reflects the style of the letters and numbers, probably first half of the 20th C. and from an antique shop as the piece is at least 100 years older.</p><p><br /></p><p>Proper hallmarking was compulsory when this was made,&nbsp; but if&nbsp; Lord Flambeau commissioned a piece and said &#039;I want it tomorrow&#039;, the maker may well have known the the unlikelihood of anyone ever noticing or caring about the lack of marks was worth the miniscule risk compared with telling M&#039;Lord that he&#039;d have to wait for weeks for the hallmarking.</p><p><br /></p><p>This is modern use but you&#039;ll get the idea.</p><p><a href="http://lifehacker.com/5948519/crack-the-hidden-pawn-shop-price-codes-to-haggle-a-better-price" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://lifehacker.com/5948519/crack-the-hidden-pawn-shop-price-codes-to-haggle-a-better-price" rel="nofollow">http://lifehacker.com/5948519/crack-the-hidden-pawn-shop-price-codes-to-haggle-a-better-price</a>[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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