A Victorian Hanoverian Pattern silver cutlery set for 36, Holland, Aldwinckle & Slater, 1894

The crest is that of Deakin. The engraved initials EN/LD, arranged in the style familiar on English silver of the 17th century, are probably those of Ernest Newton Deakin and Laura Elizabeth Deakin, who were married at Lindale-in-Cartmel, Ulverston, Lancashire (now Cumbria) on 14 January 1891. Mr. Newton, who was born at Sandbach, Cheshire, on 26 October 1865, the son of Col. James Henry Deakin (1823-1880, will proved, £250,000), a brewer and sometime Conservative M.P. for Launceston, and his wife, Martha, was educated at Rugby and Merton College, Oxford. He died at Stock Park, Ulverston on 10 November 1900. His widow (1866-1925) was married secondly at St. George, Hanover Square in 1903 to Arthur William Marden (1868-1945).

Holland, Aldwinckle & Slater was among the most prominent London manufacturing silversmiths. Tracing its origins to the partnership between Henry Holland and Thomas Frercks (first mark entered 1838, dissolved 1841), the firm expanded by absorbing a number of other, similar businesses, including that of Elizabeth Eaton & Son in 1866, and Chawner & Co. (successors to William Chawner) in 1883, all of whom were specialist silver spoon and fork makers; and Robert Hennell & Sons in 1887 (general manufacturing silversmiths). By 7 February 1895, when the marks on this present canteen were entered at Goldsmiths’ Hall and the firm was trading under the style of Holland, Aldwinckle & Slater, the partners were Thomas Alfred Slater, Walter Brindsley Slater and Henry Arthur Holland. Eventually, Holland, Aldwinckle & Slater were absorbed in 1922/23 by Francis Higgins & Sons Ltd., another old-established London manufacturing silversmiths specializing in spoons and forks. Higgins closed in 1940, when some of their spoon and fork making dies were saved and subsequently leased to C.J. Vander Ltd.