Chester's assay office ran for over 250 years before it finally closed in 1962, one of only a handful of provincial English offices to survive that long, marking silver with a distinctive town mark of three wheatsheaves and a sword. That closure means the total supply of genuine Chester-hallmarked silver is fixed. No more has been made since 1962, which gives pieces bearing that mark a collectability that Birmingham or London silver, still actively produced today, simply can't match.
This caster carries a full Chester hallmark from 1906, right in what's often considered the office's Edwardian sweet spot for quality output. The design itself is fairly restrained. A round baluster body narrows into a waisted top, sits on a circular pedestal foot, and carries a ribbed girdle band round the middle, with a domed lid finished in a fluted cone finial. It's a substantial piece, properly heavy in the hand, the kind of weight that tells you something about the silver content before you've even checked the marks.
