Antique Alexander Ritchie Iona Sterling Silver Shoe Buckles - Circa 1902
Antique Alexander Ritchie Iona Sterling Silver Shoe Buckles - Circa 1902
Antique Edwardian Alexander Ritchie Iona sterling silver shoe buckles.
The buckles are classic early Alexander Ritchie silver designs and bear wonderful zoomorphic beasts and celtic knotwork. The original leathers are still with the silver shoe buckles.
The hallmarks are rather indistinct. However with the CS * FS mark they are dated pre 1910. Looking at the Chester date letter we think it may well be the top of a capital B with a date of 1902.
Size.45mm x 60mm
Weight - per buckle. 20gm
The earliest Iona silver items of Alexander Ritchie date from the first decade of the 20th century, and most bear a double mark of AR IONA impressed into separate rectangles, and a further mark of CS & FS. ( the & is sometimes replaced by a star as is the case with these buckles ). These silver buckles were made prior to 1910, when the firm of Cornelius Saunders and Francis Shepherd - Birmingham submitted Alexander Ritchie’s silverwork through the Chester Assay Office.
Alexander Ritchie’s own mark was registered with the Chester assay office in 1910.
The House of Labhran - Sourcing a range of vintage Scottish jewellery. Including Agate jewellery, Scottish hallmarked sterling silver, vintage glengarry badges, plaid brooches, kilt pins and bracelets. With jewellery from classic Edinburgh and Glasgow makers like Robert Allison and Thomas Kerr Ebbutt and provincial Scottish silversmiths.
Scottish Highland Dress Silver Wear – We have selected a fine range of gentleman’s Highland jewellery to complete your outfit. We offer you a wonderful range of sterling silver kilt pins, hand crafted silver sgian dubhs, bespoke sporrans, kilt belt buckles and silver buttons from the classic to the contemporary, all handcrafted in fine sterling silver. We offer a wide range of silver clan badges and crests that can be added to many of the designs. We also offer the option of having personalised engraving on many of the items, making them family heirlooms and treasured antiques of the future.
All handcrafted in Scotland with Edinburgh hallmarks from the workshops of Hamilton & Inch and our Highland Regimental silversmith.
We have a passion for fine antique and collectible sgian dubh’s and Highland dirks. We source antique Jacobite styles of the 18th century, high Victorian styles and regimental patterns of WW1 – WW2. Our sgian dubh and dirk range make wonderful addition to any Highland dress collection.
Our range of fine hallmarked sterling silver skean dubh’s made by the Highland regimental silversmith and Royal silversmiths Hamilton & Inches in Edinburgh, Scotland. We can engrave many of these skean dubhs for presentation gifts.
Vintage antique Sgian Dubhs – Scottish sgian skean dubhs from Scotland – The Gaelic sgian dubh meaning “black knife”, where “black” may refer to the usual colour of the handle of the knife. It is also suggested that “black” means secret, or hidden, as in the word blackmail. This is based on the stories and theories surrounding the knife’s origin and the meaning of “Dubh” in Gaelic, in particular those associated with the Highland custom of depositing weapons at the entrance to a house prior to entering as a guest. Despite this practice, a small twin edged-dagger, (‘Mattucashlass’), concealed under the armpit, combined with a smaller knife, (‘Sgian dubh’).