Hallmarking Interest – A George III Irish sterling silver teapot, Dublin 1811 by Richard Sawyer

Of rounded rectangular form raised on four cast and applied fluted lion paw bracket feet. The body with embossed half fluted decoration. The sheet section curved spout opposite a sheet section curved handle with scroll thumbpiece, fitted with worked ivory insulators pinned to sockets. The fluted rim cornered with scallop shells and acanthus scrolls, with a cavetto section leading to a hinged domed lid surmounted by a detachable trapezoid finial with gadrooned edge, upon a fluted calyx. Traces of engraved shells and scroll to hinge section. Fully marked scroll the base section rim, the lid with duty mark only, the handle with standard mark only, the finial unmarked.

Length – 29.5 cm / 11.5 inches

Weight – 713 grams / 22.92 ozt

The marks found upon this teapot are in an unusual position, spread out to the underside edge. There is a rectangular shaped patch underneath the teapot where the original Dublin or quite likely London marks have been cut out. The likely explanation for this is that this teapot was a bought-in piece that had been assayed elsewhere and when presented for sale by Sawyer, so not to appear that these were let-in marks it had to be marked around the rim to comply with hallmarking regulations. Examples of salvers with makers marks to the edges of the rim, to not affect the already finished field, are known in both Irish and Scottish silver. What this evidence is there was a healthy system of manufacture with retail elsewhere, where some retailing smiths required their silver to also bear their mark or to be only marked by them.