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GARRARD HISTORY
Garrard & Co. Limited, designs and manufactures luxury jewellery and silver. George Wickes founded Garrard in London in 1735. Garrard was the first official Crown Jeweller of the UK, charged with the upkeep of the British Crown Jewels, from 1843 to 2007. Garrard also created some of the world's most illustrious sporting trophies, including the Americas Cup, the ICC Cricket World Cup Trophy and a number of trophies for Royal Ascot.

In 1915, Garrard & Co formed, The Garrard Engineering and Manufacturing Company, to manufacture precision parts for the military. They initially made precision range finders and later hand-grenades marked 'G/Swindon' and the bomb releases for Wellington and Lancaster bombers.

After WW1, in 1919, they started producing consumer products, concentrating mainly on high-quality spring wound gramophone motors for the likes of Columbia and Decca. Before this all gramophone motors were imported in from Switzerland and Germany. During this time they designed and produced some of the very best spring & electric motors followed by a huge lineage of turntables which culminated with the now world famous Garrard 301 and 401 turntables.

In 1960, the company was sold to Plessey, an electronics conglomerate. From 1976-1978, Garrard worked on video disc and data storage but foolishly chose not to invest in the technology. In 1979, Plessey sold Garrard to Gradiente Electronics of Brazil and their turntable series production was moved to Brazil (Manaus). The remaining Garrard research and development operation in Swindon was reduced to a skeleton operation until completely shut down in 1992.

The ad states that it has an "unmarked and untested acanthus border". How does one test an acanthus border?

JerryVan wrote: Sat Aug 02, 2025 5:45 pm The ad states that it has an "unmarked and untested acanthus border". How does one test an acanthus border?

I suspect the acanthus border is not Hallmarked for Sterling Silver and the auction house has not tested it for Sterling Silver. In Britain silver cannot be sold as silver unless assayed and therefore Hallmarked. This is often ignored on small items with foreign silver marks but it’s tricky on larger items for Auction Houses. If this machine was made by Garrard & Co I would expect each silver part to be Hallmarked. It may be that only the horn is silver and apparently Hallmarked in London in 1973 according to the auction house information. This contradicts the date given in the video of 1992.

jamiegramo wrote: Sun Aug 03, 2025 11:22 am

JerryVan wrote: Sat Aug 02, 2025 5:45 pm The ad states that it has an "unmarked and untested acanthus border". How does one test an acanthus border?

I suspect the acanthus border is not Hallmarked for Sterling Silver and the auction house has not tested it for Sterling Silver. In Britain silver cannot be sold as silver unless assayed and therefore Hallmarked. This is often ignored on small items with foreign silver marks but it’s tricky on larger items for Auction Houses. If this machine was made by Garrard & Co I would expect each silver part to be Hallmarked. It may be that only the horn is silver and apparently Hallmarked in London in 1973 according to the auction house information. This contradicts the date given in the video of 1992.

Jamie, excellent observations!

By the UK Hallmarking Act any piece of silver over 7.7 grams needs to be Hallmarked. And Garrard as a leading precious metals house would undoubtedly not violate this law.