Silver Makers

Hester Bateman (1708-1794) known as ‘The Queen of British Silversmiths’ was an English silversmith based in London. After the death of her silversmith husband she successfully ran the family business for thirty years before passing it on to her sons. They in turn passed it on to their sons and the business...

Howell, James & Co – were well known silversmiths and jewellers based in Regent Street, London operating between 1819 and 1911. Starting off as silk mercers and retail jewellers, they rapidly expanded, employing some 140 women who lived over the shop, reputedly each having their own room! They stocked high quality...

Hukin & Heath were a Birmingham based manufacturing silversmiths and electroplaters. Set up in 1855, the firm entered its first mark in Birmingham in 1875 and then a mark in the London Assay Office in 1879. Their manufacturing premises were based in Birmingham and their showrooms were based in Charterhouse Street...

J Dixon & Sons – were one of the major British manufacturers of silverware, both plate and sterling silver, electroplated Britannia metal, electroplated nickel silver and precision tools. They were also famous for their whistles. Established in 1806 in Sheffield and trading until 1976, they produced a wide range of...

James Charles Edington was a London based silversmith working from Soho in London from 1828 when he entered his first mark. He is listed as a working silversmith in Leicester Square from about 1837 to 1862 and then as a manufacturing silversmith from 1863 to 1873. Although the firm with his name kept trading, it...

James Le Bas was an English silversmith who later moved to Dublin in Ireland. Working from 1786 until his death in 1845, his two sons William Robert and Benjamin both worked in the family firm. He started out apprenticed to his father William Le Bas, a noted silversmith. He moved in 1786 to work for […]

John & Humphrey Payne were silversmiths and jewellers operating in the first part of the 18th Century in London. They were advertised as making and selling silver and gold plate, as well as trading in second hand plate. They also made watches and traded in secondhand watches. Humphrey Payne is listed as working in...

John Bridge was the co-founder in 1787 (with Philip Rundell) of Rundell, Bridge and Rundell, goldsmith, jewellers and royal retailers to the Prince Regent. Their London shop on Ludgate Hill in London had a huge stock of new and old silver, watches, jewellery and ‘objects of virtue’. Employing some of the best...

John Edwards III – was a silversmith working in London from 1788 when he entered his first mark as a plateworker. He was in a short partnership with William Frisbee and they entered a joint mark together in 1791, but by 1792 he’d entered another mark in his own name alone. As a partner of […]

John Grinsell & Sons – originally Grinsell & Bourne, the business took on this name in 1871 after the original partnership dissolved. They were manufacturing silversmiths based in Birmingham. John Grinsell went into business with his four sons in 1871 and they had manufacturing workshops in Birmingham as well as...