TWO PAIRS OF GEORGE II SILVER TEA TONGS OR NIPS, MAKER'S MARKS APPARENTLY TW AND W.O (probably for WILLIAM OVERTON), LONDON, CIRCA 1745
the first engraved with the initials DD, approximately 12.5cm long; and three pairs of sugar tongs, one bright-cut, Hester Bateman, London, circa 1780, one plain Fiddle pattern, engraved with the initials AA, Thomas Hoare, London,1806, the last King's pattern, John Walton, Newcastle, 1840
Tongs of the pattern of the first items in this lot have long been catalogued as sugar nips and more recently as tea tongs. Eileen Goodway, at a recent Silver Society meeting in London, however, has suggested that they were employed as snuffers to extinguish the flames of tea kettle burners.