Silver Serviette Ring

When I was putting away the Christmas serviettes I thought my serviette ring would be a useful emergency blip.

All our married life the family has had a silver serviette ring, which we use on special occasions. The Man brought his with him when we got married and the girls were each gifted one with their name engraved by their Aunt and Uncle (also godparents) when they were Christened.

This is mine, a rather flamboyant Victorian piece featuring garlands and cherubs. When I was young my a dear, elderly friend of my nan and great aunt, came to live with my great aunt. I now believe, as an excuse to give me a bit of pocket money (2/6, very welcome in the early 60s) their friend used to give me a Saturday job of dusting her bachelor chest and ornaments and also doing a bit of shopping for her sweets

Well anyhow, when this lady died, I was given the serviette ring and when I got a home of my own, I also got the bachelor chest, though we always wrongly called it a secretaire.

So the silver serviette ring was manufactured in 1895 and hallmarked with a V for that year in the Birmingham Assay Office. The lion passant (or guardant in this case) verifies that it is of Sterling (925) fineness. The anchor mark denotes the assay was done in Birmingham and the initials, M & L are the marks of the makers, Minshull and Latimer who were silversmiths at the end of the 19th and  early 20th C. They worked in Vyse Street making trinket boxes, napkin rings, nurses buckles and small decorative items.

Our journals are such good places to record this sort of family stuff!