The maker's mark

A small cipher, struck into the back of every piece.

The W&T monogram, the size of a sixpence. Hidden against the cabinet face when the piece is fitted. Found on inspection. Recessed, not raised, so it deepens with use.

Every Winfield & Turner piece is struck on the back with a small two-letter cipher — a serif W fused with a serif T, set inside a heraldic double-rule shield. The mark is about eight millimetres tall. It is recessed by six tenths of a millimetre into the brass, struck from a single hand-cut master die that lives in a drawer in the workshop bench. There is no second copy of the die. Every piece, across every collection, takes its mark from the same tool.

Why the back, not the front

Birmingham silversmiths have placed their hallmarks on the back of finished work for more than three hundred years. The logic is older still — the front of a piece belongs to the design, the back belongs to the maker. We follow the same convention. The cipher does not compete with the work; it confirms it.

Loud marks belong to brands that need to be loud. We do not. The cipher is small enough to be missed and steady enough to be remembered. The customer finds it once — at the moment of unwrapping. The kitchen designer photographs it for their portfolio. After that the mark goes quietly to work, unseen, for the next thirty years.

Where it sits on each piece

Cabinet knob. Struck into the back of the four-pointed star backplate, between the centre and the upper tip. Visible when the knob is held loose in the hand; hidden against the cabinet face once fitted.

Cup pull. Struck into the back face of the cup, centred between the two mounting holes. Visible on unpacking; hidden against the drawer face once fitted.

Bar handle. Struck into the back of the right-hand trefoil backplate only — one mark per piece, never two. The convention follows English silver, where the maker's stamp sits on a single chosen face. Visible on unpacking; hidden against the cabinet face once fitted.

A separate note on the Guild's rose

The Guild Collection carries a visible mark on the front of every piece — a small chased Tudor rose, set into a smooth cartouche at the centre of the hammered surface. This is not the maker's mark. It is the visible design language of the Guild Collection itself, a deliberate reference to the Birmingham Guild of Handicraft, the 1890 Arts and Crafts workshop that gave the collection its name.

The W&T cipher still appears on the back of every Guild piece — the same as Founders, the same as Forge. The rose belongs to Guild as a visible signature. The cipher belongs to all three collections as a quiet provenance.

How to find it

Lift the piece. Turn it over. The cipher sits on the back face, slightly off-centre on the bar handle (right backplate), dead centre on the knob and the cup. The mark is recessed; it catches shadow rather than light, so it reads most clearly at a slight angle to a window. Run your fingertip across the cartouche — you will feel the shield edge before you see the letters.

The cipher is the Winfield & Turner promise: every piece was made in Birmingham, finished by hand, struck from the same die. One mark, one workshop, three collections.