RC

Robert Cattle is a famous York maker and was part of the "Cattle & Barber" company, (Robert Cattle & James Barber). They are probably the most well known of the York silver-smiths.

This pair of antique Georgian silver sugar tongs are very unusual indeed. We had originally assumed that they were Richard Crossley, a London maker, but thanks to Michael Baggott, who is a York silver collector, we now know what they really are.

	The Lion passant faces right. This is extremely rare, but it is noted in Jackson's, (p465), that this is sometimes found with York silver, dated between 1793 and 1808.
	The maker's mark is perhaps the most interesting feature. RC is the mark made by Robert Cattle, when he was working on his own - in 1807

So we have established that these sugar tongs are:

York

1807

Robert Cattle - alone

with the rare right facing Lion passant.

a very rare pair of tongs indeed

A big thank you to Michael for supplying this information & allowing us all to share in seeing a fascinating piece of rare silver-ware - with a little bit of knowledge about it.

Click on any picture to enlarge