Amazing solid silver salt bucket and spade. Highly collectable, lovely clear hall marks on bucket for Anchor for, Birmingham BB, for Barker Brothers Assay 1878, Queens head and Lion. Unfortunately can't see any hall marks on the shovel, but the quality tells me it was made with the bucket. Lovely novelty item, quite rare. 5 cm diameter 2/1/2 cm tall Barker Brothers
Barker Brothers business was established in Birmingham in 1801. The firm still possesses the original Boulton & Watt dies acquired during its early days of manufacturing. The business appears in an 1871 directory as Barker Brothers, silversmiths active in Paradise Street. In 1903 they moved to new factory premises, Unity Works, Constitution Hill, Birmingham, where it remained until the 1980s maintaining a London showroom during the early part of the 20th century. In 1907, the firm was converted into a limited liability company under the style Barker Brothers Silversmiths Ltd. Levi & Salaman Ltd and its subsidiary Potosi Silver Co were incorporated by Barker Brothers in 1921. In the 1960s, merging with Ellis & Co (Birmingham) Ltd, the firm changed to Barker Ellis Silver Co Ltd. On January 2, 1979, the firm obtained a Federal registration in the USA for the trademarks Ellis & Co, Barker Ellis and Ellis Barker (the marks were cancelled in 1988). The company went into administration in 1992.