DESCRIPTION |
Attractive and early pair of Georgian cast silver sugar tongs with a crest engraved bow and five lobe grips. Unusually for cast tongs the arms are not pierced. |
SILVERSMITH |
Thomas Hannam & Richard Mills |
DATE or HALLMARK |
circa 1765 |
ASSAY OFFICE |
London |
WEIGHT in GRAMS |
41 |
LENGTH in INCHES |
5 ¼ |
SILVER STANDARD |
.925 sterling silver |
OVERALL CONDITION |
excellent, with perfect bow spring action and just two well executed repairs to one arm. |
FAULTS |
18th century cast silver fractures easily and so was not the ideal choice for the making of sugar tongs. This is probably why, having only just displaced from fashion the cast silver sugar nips by around 1770, they were
themselves superseded by the far more robust one piece with sprung bow type by around 1780. It very rare to find cast arm tongs without repairs or fractures. |