Benjamin Mountigue was a London maker. There are several reasons why he is an interesting maker, not least because of the curious entry in Grimwade. His first mark was entered in the Goldsmith’s register on 24th August 1770 under the name of Mordecai. On 20th June 1772 he also entered a mark with his initials reversed, i.e “MB”. He appears in the Parliamentary Report list of 1773 as “Mordecai, alias Mountigue, Benjamin, buckle-maker”. Girimwade also tentatively attributes a mark of BM in an oval punch to him, dated 1767, when he took Levy Phillips as an apprentice. This is 3 years earlier than his properly ascribed mark. His tongs are delightful.  They are easily ascribed to him as he is the only maker who entered a mark of BM around this period. Several of the marks he entered as a Buckle-maker have a pellet between, so if the tongs have the mark with the pellet between, they must be dated between 1st October 1773 until his last mark of 16th June 1784. Two of the pairs of tongs I have are dated between 1786 and 1790 so he was still in business until at least 1786. He is later recorded as being in partnership with JJ Montague and later Robert Pingston although neither of these partnerships have marks registered for them.

Click on a picture to see more details

c1770-75 

                       1770-75 

                      c1770-75 

c1780       

c1780       

c1780      

c1790