Hall marks on gold & silver plate

62 HALL MARKS ON PLATE.
ISH Crowned. John Samuel Hunt and his son, John Hunt. 1842
to 1865. The former retired in 1863.
TH
T10 Crowned. John LIunt and Robert Roskell. 1865 to 1882.
RR
A-D Crowned. Robert Roskell, Allan Roskell, and John Mortimer
TMH
Hunt.
Messrs. Lmnbert, Coventry Street. The founder of this business
was Francis Lambert, son of an army accoutrement maker in
the Strand; born 1778. He was apprenticed to Wesley, a silversmith
in the Strand. Leaving Wesley, he entered the service of Mr.
Clark, of Exeter Change, who dealt in cutlery, bronzes, clocks,
watches, jewellery and silver goods. Thomas Hamlet, the natural
son of Sir Francis Dashwood (ob. 1781) was also an assistant.
About 1800, Hamlet took a shop on his own account, together
with Lambert, in St. Martin's Court (where Prout, the comb-maker,
afterwards lived). Here they sold jewellery, second-hand plate,
fishing-tackle, etc.
Hamlet subsequently opened a silversmith's and jeweller's shop
at the corner of Sydney Alley, facing Coventry Street, with a promise
to take Lambert in as a partner, which was never fulfilled.
Lambert left on account of ill-health, and went to Lisbon, where he
opened a sort of bazaar, which was not successful ; he then returned
to England, and opened a shop for the sale of jewellery, and was
also a manufacturer of silver plate, at Nos. ir and 12, Coventry
Street, in 1803. William Rawlings, who had lived with Hamlet, was
taken as his manager, with a share of the pro fits, and the style of tlie
firm became " Lambert and Rawlings." Mr. Lambert manufactured
all silver goods, except spoons and forks; his foreman, John Wrangham,
and his assistant, William Moulson, entering their names at
Goldsmiths' <strong>Hall</strong>
y^^^
the initials WM were used.
After the death of the former, about 1835,
Mr. Lambert died in 1841, and was succeeded by his youngest
son, George, who took up his freedom in 1 849, and entered his name
at the <strong>Hall</strong>, using the monogram GL (the L traversed by a small G).
He manufactured his choicest goods, as a rule, in fine or Brttannia
silver, following the most approved forms of English plate of the
time of William HI and Queen Anne, in flagons, tankards and gob-
lets, not disdaining, however, to follow occasionally the later style
of the Adams period of decorative art. His collection of old English
plate was very extensive. W. Rawlings died in 1862.
To revert to Thomas Hamlet, who was patronised by the
nobility and gentry. He had an extensive connection, and carried
on the business successfully for forty years; but in consequence of
his speculations in pearl fisheries at Bussorah the building of the
Princess's Theatre, which proved a failure and other ruinous ad-