The crest on these forks indicate possible use by a Royal appointee, either diplomatic or household, rather than necessarily being commissioned by a member of the Royal family.

A set of six fiddle, thread and shell pattern tableforks, by Mary Chawner London 1836. All are engraved with the name of Sion College and each carries a different name and date (between 1836-1838) .
Price: £525.00

Sion College was founded in 1630 under a bequest of £3000 from the Reverend Thomas White to support members of the clergy and initially comprised alms-houses and a library . Between 1710 and 1836, the library was one of the copyright libraries that received a copy of each book published in England. It moved several times within London and, in the twentieth century when its premises were sold, the collections of books were donated to Lambeth Palace and King's College, London. Sion College is now based at Faith House in Westminster and continues to support the Clergy of London through grants and fellowships. The names on these forks are those of donors to the College.

A George I Hanoverian three-tine tablefork of unusually heavy gauge, by Paul Hanet London 1724, engraved with the arms of Graham and the motto used by Graham of Killearn .
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All of the quarterings on this tablefork relate to branches of the Graham family, a prominent Scottish noble family, the head of which has carried the title of Duke of Montrose since 1707. The motto, however, is only noted as being used by one branch — that based at Killearn in Stirlingshire. The head of this branch, John Graham (d. 1755) inherited the estate sometime after 1722 and served as Member of Parliament for Stirling in London between 1722-1727. Prior to that, he had supported George I during the 1715 Jacobite rebellion and served as Chamberlain (local representative) to the Duke of Montrose. He had also been kidnapped by the noted Jacobite and outlaw Rob Roy McGregor in 1716 while attempting to arrest him.

A George III hourglass pattern tablefork with die-cast crest, by John Egan Dublin 1819 (retailed by Matthew West). The die-cast crest is that of Charles Smyth (nee Vereker), 2nd Viscount Gort (1768-1842) .
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Charles Vereker inherited the title of his maternal uncle John Prendergast-Smyth, 1st Viscount Gort, in 1817 due to special arrangements, when the peerage was created the previous year. Thereby he inherited the Prendergast estates of his great uncle and the Smyth estates of his uncle — he had already inherited those of his father in 1801. The 2nd Viscount Gort, after briefly joining the navy in 1782, served as Member of Parliament for Limerick from 1794-1800 and 1802-1817. During the attempted French invasion of Ireland in 1798 (to coincide with the rising of the United Irishmen), the future Viscount Gort was badly wounded at Coloony (leading to Coloony being adopted as the family's motto from 1798 onwards).

The future Viscount Gort served as a Lord of the Treasury in Ireland from 1807-1812, Constable of Limerick Castle 1809-1842 and Governor of Galway 1814-1831. In addition to this, he was a Privy Councillor of Ireland from 1809 and of Great Britain from 1834. He sat in the Westminster Parliament from 1823-1842.

A silver-gilt replica of the Manners fork, by Walter Willson London 1936, engraved with the crests from the orginal fork. This fork is in a later box.
Price: £185.00

The original "Manners Fork" made in London in 1632 by Richard Crosse is the earliest recorded silver fork made by an English workshop and is now in the Victoria and Albert Museum. They purchased it in 1923 from the London-based dealer, Walter H. Wilson, for £100. The crests on this fork are copied from the original and are those of John Manners (1604-1679), future 8th Earl of Rutland, and his wife Frances Montagu (1613-1671) whom he married in 1628. He inherited Haddon Hall, in Derbyshire in 1623. In 1924 the Curator of Metalwork at the Victoria and Albert Museum recorded in the notes for this fork that the matching spoon had recently been discovered under one of the floors of Haddon Hall.

A Victorian Fiddle pattern sardine fork, by George Lowe Chester 1838, crested with a lion's head pierced by an arrow.
Price: £175.00

This fork was once part of the collection of Martin Gubbins (1916-2001) and was sold at auction in 2002 as part of lot 144.

A pair of Old English table forks, by James Barber and William North, York 1844, initialled {F}.
Price: £155.00
2 pairs available

A Hanoverian pattern sweetmeat fork, by Frederick Rudolph Precht Amsterdam 1751 .
Price: £95.00

A George III Old English thread tablefork with square shoulders, by Richard Crossley London 1786, crested for George Douglas, 16th Earl of Morton (1761-1827) .
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George Douglas, 16th Earl of Morton (1761-1827) inherited the Earldom (created in 1458) on the death of his father in 1774. He attended Eton College from 1775-1777 before embarking on a Grand Tour of Europe. He sat in Parliament between 1784 and 1790 as a representative peer of Scotland before receiving the additional title of Baron Douglas of Lochleven (in the peerage of Great Britain) in 1791 which gave him a permanent seat in Parliament. In addition to this he was elected to the Royal Society in 1785 (of which he served as Vice President if Joseph Banks was unavailable) and the Society of Antiquaries in 1786. He also served as Chamberlain of the Household to Queen Charlotte from 1792 until her death in 1818. In Scotland he held the offices of Grand Master of the Freemasons (1790-1792), Lord High Commissioner to the Kirk (1820-1824), a member of the Royal Company of Archers and Lord Lieutenant of Fife (1808-1824) as well as being created a Knight of the Thistle in 1797.

A George III Old English pattern tablefork, by Thomas Wallis London 1797 (with 'Double Duty' hallmark), crested with a paw holding a cross pattee fitchy.
Price: £75.00
The duty on silver in Great Britain, payment of which was signified by the King's head, was doubled in 1797 to 1s per Troy Ounce to help finance the war against France. In Birmingham, Newcastle, Sheffield and York this was shown by the striking of two King's heads, but in London and Exeter cusps were added to the edge of the punch. The hallmarks on this fork include an unusually clear impression of this mark.

A New Gothic pattern dessert fork by George Adams London 1867 .
Price:£75.00

The design for the New Gothic pattern was registered on December 13th 1854.

A Victorian fiddle pattern tablefork, by George Adams London 1842, crested for the 3rd Earl of Norbury .
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Hector John Graham-Toler (1810-1873) became 3rd Earl of Norbury in 1839 when his father was shot in the grounds of his own home by his butler (apparently on the orders of the Ribbon Men- a hard-line Catholic movement in nineteenth century Ireland). The 3rd Earl had served as High Sherriff of King's County (Ireland) in 1835 and in 1848 he married the eccentrically named Stewart, daughter of Sir Henry Bethune Baronet (who was by right Earl of Lindsay- a title restored to Stewart's brother John in 1878). The Earl was somewhat eccentric himself as he is recorded as having 'wandered around Valence Park [the house in Kent he had purchased in 1857 and now Valence School] at dead of night and took his morning bath on the verandah outside his room'.