I certainly don't mean to cast dispersions on your Christmas present, but the brass pin that holds the chape in place worries me?
From your pic, it looks new and recently polished to me?
I'm just saying, that there are a lot of these being reproduced for reenactments these days.
Dave
Nice buckle
I can answer some of the questions posted about this buckle, firstly not all 18thC buckles had full hallmarks. A paticular process in which silver was fused on to base metal, today referred to as Sheffield Plate was used for shoe buckles in the late 18thC. I see nothing wrong with this buckle, it is in the style of a 18thC shoe buckle and a very nice one at that. I will try and ID the mark, which I suspect is the maker.
SS
Thomas Boulsover, a Sheffield cutler, invented the process which became called Sheffield plate about 1740. The date is uncertain because no patent was taken out. The next known manufacturer was Joseph Hancock, in 1755, but others also began and in 1784 the Sheffield Plate makers obtained an Act of the Parliament legalizing a mark consisting of the full name of the maker and an associated device. In Sheffield plate a sheet of silver is fused on to a thicker one of copper and the compound billet rolled, both metals expanding equally, become a thin sheet of copper coated with a layer of silver. About 1840 the Electroplate process superseded Sheffield Plate. Its production ceased about 1860.
Sheffield plate was really not much different than modern electroplate in it's silver content. The process was more difficult than electroplating and only flat sheets of copper could be plated by the Sheffield plating method. As a result there is not much detail or sharp raised relief on Sheffield pieces, like those found on your buckle. The parts of Sheffield plate that were subject to wear rather rapidly show exposed copper on the surface. The tangs and back of your shoe buckle would show copper, not silver if they had been worn and were Sheffield plated.
Since Sheffield plate has virtually no silver content there will not be any silver mark. The British were hallmark and tax nuts and as you can see above they used the full maker name in the hallmark.
I have seen silver decorated steel shoe buckles from the time and I know of one example of an early German heavy silver shoe buckle in the Metropolitan Museum. As you can see that silver buckle was small and very heavy because silver is soft and will bend easily.
Here is a set of pages with the Sheffield Plate makers hallmarks. I looked through there to see if I could find your hallmark. I didn't see it there but I may have missed t. Take a look around and you might have better luck than I did with my casual search.
