can anyone tell me about this sgain dubh

[tesko82]

This is my granddad's sgain dubh I want to know about .I think its from Glasgow ,the hallmarks are H.T a standing lion and a fancy looking C and one other I can't read.

[Grizzly]

hi tesko82 and welcome, I am no expert but a quick search on the internet reveals that HT stands for Henry Tatton of Edinburgh and the date letter C is for 1909. Other than that I know nothing. A bit of silver polish and that would bring up the colour nicely.

[tesko82]

1909? Do you think I should polish such an old dagger? I just searched henry tatton and the symbol of the standing lion is for Glasgow

[Grizzly]

As far as I know any method of cleaning silver always removes a tiny bit, here's a link on how to clean it. - http://m.wikihow.com/Clean-Silver

The rampant lion is a Glasgow Mark, it's also indicative of being sterling silver, i.e 925 parts out of a 1000 is pure silver.

Henry Tatton was an Edinburgh silversmith, it just means the piece may have been assayed in Glasgow.

Hope this helps.

[tesko82]

Indeed it does thankyou

[StevieR]

Hello mate and welcome to the forum. What a lovely heirloom you have. I would definitely polish the silver. It will come up a treat and although, as Simon points out, some silver may be lost in the cleaning process, the amount is minuscule so I don't think you have anything to worry about.

[tesko82]

I will post an updated picture of it cleaned up.I am very proud of it,it is a MacGregor/Burns heirloom I will hold dearly for eternity.

[Grizzly]

I wish I had one like it. It will do you proud!

[Grizzly]

A bit of an update and correction on my part, I have had another look at the hallmark on a better computer screen the date letter for a fancy "C" for Glasgow is 1899 not as I originally said. So it's earlier than we thought. Being over 100 years old it makes it an antique now. Here is the detail from the hallmarks register. -

[tesko82]

I did some searching and my c is fancier like this one