Description

A well proportioned early English silver mug with plain styling and a single banded ornament. Excellent colour. Engraved initials “HS” below.

Contains 650 ml.
Weight 373 grams, 12 troy ounces.
Height 13.5cm (to top of handle). Diameter 8.8 (top).
London 1712.
Maker William Pearson.
Britannia standard silver.

Marks. Stamped under the outside rim with a full set of English silver hallmarks; maker’s mark to the handle.

*Britannia Standard silver is 95.8% pure. In 1696, so extensive had become the melting and clipping of coinage that the silversmiths were forbidden to use the sterling standard for their wares, but had to use a new higher standard, 95.8 per cent pure. New hallmarks were ordered, “the figure of a woman commonly called Britannia” and the lion’s head erased (torn off at the neck) replacing the lion passant and the leopard’s head crowned. This continued until the old standard of 92.5 per cent was restored in 1720. Britannia standard silver still continues to be produced even today.

Literature. The term “mug” is traditionally used for a single-handed, lidless drinking vessel. They are nearly all of either pint or half pint capacity. Antique silver mugs are very rarely found as early as tankards, the earliest seeming to date from about 1680.

The drinking mug is in very good condition with moderate signs of wear commensurate with age. There is mercury solder visible where the handle meets the body, and below the mug; this is original to the manufacture.

Maker: William Pearson

William Pearson, London silversmith, apprenticed to Michael Bourne 1691, turned over to Samuel Bourne. Free 1699. 1st mark entered as smallworker 1704. 2nd and 3rd marks as largeworker 1710. 4th in 1717. 5th (sterling) 1721. Livery 1721.

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