Sterling Silver Serviette Ring | Engine-Turned | Engraved "S.P.D." | Birmingham | 1959–60

Sterling Silver Serviette Ring | Engine-Turned | Engraved "S.P.D." | Birmingham | 1959–60

A ring of silver for one place at the table, with three initials to say whose place it was.

Serviette rings became familiar objects on the 19th-century dining table, when cloth napkins were often kept for repeated use between launderings. Engraved initials were one way of identifying them. Many surviving examples still bear the names or initials of those for whom they were first intended.

The ring is a plain cylinder with stepped, moulded borders at top and bottom. The band between them is engine-turned in a wavy-line pattern, with a rectangular cartouche left plain and engraved in script with the initials "S.P.D." The marks, struck in a row on the band, are the maker's mark W A, the anchor for Birmingham, the lion passant for sterling silver, and the date letter for 1959–60.

The ring is in excellent condition, with the engine-turned decoration and engraved initials clearly defined.

Key Details

• Maker: W A (unidentified maker's mark)
• Date: Birmingham, 1959–60
• Material: sterling silver
• Form: cylindrical serviette ring with stepped borders
• Decoration: engine-turned wavy-line pattern; rectangular cartouche engraved "S.P.D."
• Marks: W A, Birmingham anchor, lion passant, date letter
• Dimensions: diameter 4.4 cm; height 2 cm
• Weight: 9 g
• Condition: excellent; engine-turning and engraving clearly defined
• Buyer profile: collector of English hallmarked silver; buyer looking for a dated silver gift; someone with the initials S.P.D.

Collector Appeal

The Birmingham hallmarks place this ring in the 1959–60 assay year, giving it particular appeal to collectors of dated English silver and to anyone looking for a gift connected with that time. The closely spaced engine-turning remains well defined, and the engraved initials keep a small trace of an earlier owner.

Initials outlast the meals; S.P.D. remains, though the name behind them is no longer known.