British Plate Chambersticks

A rare and fine pair of chambersticks made in what is now a rare metal.

Reading from Keith Pinn’s work, ‚’Paktong, the Chinese Alloy in Europe’, Chapter 6, we learn that an advertisement in the Sheffield Directory 1833 for the firm of Wm. Hutton & Son, mentioned ‚’British Plate or Improved German Silver’ goods. They later announced themselves to be the ‚’manufacturers of the original British Plate and the inventors of the patent Argentine Plate or plated German silver’. As Keith points out, these are two different products, a fact that is supported in another advertisement for M.Nash’s Improved British Plate which has the advantage over plated wares ‚’‚Ķ‚Ķ‚Ķ.the whole being one and the same substance’.

These chambersticks are similar to the one Mr. Pinn illustrates on p.75, ‚’made like Sheffield plate but in unplated’, burnished ‚’German silver’. They are stamped around their original snuffers and to their underside with a series of marks and F&Co within a rectangle. Each bears a belted armorial crest and the motto ‚’SOLA VIRTUS INVICTA’. (Virtue alone is invincible. Howard family).

Dia: 6inches