Early Victorian Silver Hafted Close Plated Dessert Cutlery Set for Six People. The handles are in the rococo revival style with leafy C and S scrolls. The set is housed within a mahogany sarcophagus shaped fitted case with a blue velvet interior.
Each knife blade and fork stem/tine is marked AH JH for Aaron Hadfield (Hatfield) & Sons of Sheffield. The JH may refer to John Hand who patented the method of close plating (soldering thin sheets of silver onto ready made items). The handles and collars are made from one piece of hollow silver and are hallmarked for Sheffield by Aaron Hadfield (Hatfield) with the lion passant and Queen Victoria head duty mark. There is no date letter on any handle.
Condition is good with small losses to four of the knife handle ends, where the pointed tip should have been (this does not affect use). The knife blades and fork tines are all in good order and the handles secure. One knife blade with a small loss of silver sheet towards the tip (this illustrates that they are close plated, as you can see the thin layer of silver on the steel). The case is in excellent order. The case has no key and is a little stiff to open.
Approximate total cased weight is. 1.970 kilos.
Approximate case dimensions are 33 cm length, 25 cm width and
Approximate knife dimensions are 21 cm length and 1.8 cm blade width.
Approximate fork dimensions are 17.5 cm length and 1.8 cm tine width.