MARK OF OMAR RAMSDEN AND ALWYN CARR, LONDON, 1909

Omar Ramsden (1873-1939) was born and trained in Sheffield, heart of the silver and cutlery trade for the north of England. He was born into a family with ties to the silver trade and as early as 1887 was working as an apprentice to a firm of silversmiths there. While the training that he received during that apprenticeship no doubt helped him to be a successful businessman, and would later help him manage a workshop, it was his time doing evening classes at the Sheffield School of Art which first gave him the taste for design. It was also there that he met Alywn Carr (1872-1940) who would become a friend and partner from 1898-1919. The combination of his knowledge of manufacturing techniques with his and Carr's designs, which, while sometimes copying and often inspired by earlier examples, were always innovative and timeless, allowed him to turn his workshop at St. Dunstan's in Fulham, West London, into a very successful business. Though Ramsden is known to have gone to visit the Victoria and Albert Museum for ideas of silver, the present salt is based on an example marked for 1595 which was given to the Worshipful Company of Haberdashers by Sir Hugh Hammesley K.T. in 1636.

Sir Samuel Osborn (1864-1952) was the son of Samuel Osborn, founder of the Samuel Osborn and Co, steel manufacturers and engineers. He served on Sheffield County Council and was Lord Mayor of Sheffield in 1912. During his year as master he entertained the Duke of Connaught (1850-1942) at the Haberdashers' Hall in 9 February 1911.