Sterling Silver Serviette Ring | Joseph Gloster Ltd | Birmingham | 1936–37

Sterling Silver Serviette Ring | Joseph Gloster Ltd | Birmingham | 1936–37

Eight flat sides and a field of fine engraving: the 1930s liked its silver crisp.

Joseph Gloster was a Birmingham silversmith whose firm traded as Joseph Gloster Ltd in the first half of the twentieth century, making small domestic silver such as serviette rings, cigarette cases and tea wares. Machine engine-turning, which cuts a fine, regular pattern into the surface, was widely used on such pieces in the interwar years.

The ring is rectangular with canted corners, giving it eight sides. The front panel is engine-turned with a fine diamond pattern and centred by a plain oval cartouche engraved with an interlaced monogram. The other sides are left plain and polished. The hallmarks are struck inside the ring.

Excellent condition, with the engraved decoration and monogram remaining clearly defined.

Key Details

• Maker: Joseph Gloster Ltd, Birmingham
• Hallmarks: maker’s mark J.G LTD; anchor (Birmingham); lion passant (sterling); date letter M
• Date: 1936–37
• Material: sterling silver
• Decoration: engine-turned front panel; oval cartouche with interlaced monogram
• Dimensions: length 4.1 cm; width 3.9 cm; height 2.7 cm
• Weight: 33 g
• Condition: excellent
• Buyer profile: collectors of English hallmarked silver and of serviette rings, and anyone furnishing a traditional table

Collector Appeal

Fully hallmarked, with a documented maker, town and date, the ring has the canted, eight-sided form and engine-turned panel typical of English table silver of the 1930s. The engraved monogram, still clearly defined, offers a personal detail from the ring’s earlier life.

The initials have outlived the hand that ordered them; the silver has kept them.