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Levi & Salaman

Phineas Levi moved from Exeter to Birmingham to work for one of his relatives in 1866. In 1870 he founded the company of Levi & Salaman in partnership with Joseph Wolff Salaman. Their business was so successful that by 1872 they had to move to larger premises at 18-20, Hockey Street, Birmingham, where they continued to make gilt and silver jewellery.

In 1878, Phineas Levi keen to extend their business, bought a small company in Barr Street, Birmingham, that was producing spoons and forks from a white metal known as Potosi, which resembled silver. By 1885, the partnership of Levi & Salaman had expanded again and they moved into a newly built edifice at 143 Newhall Street in Birmingham, known as the ‘Potosi Works’, from which they continued their jewellery business.

Levi & Salaman have registered their marks at the Birmingham Assay Office in 1878, 1880, 1888, 1893 and 1896, at the London Assay Offices between 1893 and 1912 and occasionally at Chester Assay Office. The latest hallmark date recorded on a Levi and Salaman buttonhook is 1921, the same year that they and their subsidiary Potosi Silver company, were amalgamated with Barker Bros. Ltd., manufacturing silversmiths in Birmingham. Barker Bros. continued to use the L&S mark for several years after the merger, the final mark being entered at the Birmingham Assay Office in 1926.

There are two things that distinguish L&S buttonhooks - the use of silver collar as part of the handle where the handle joins the steel shaft, and on which the hallmarks are invariably stamped, and use of custom made steel shafts without a turned bolster.