flowtik's photostream  

A trip to Wisley botanical gardens where they were having an exhibition of orchids. A more botanically minded person would have photographed its name tag too!

A copy of a mouthpiece held in Edinburgh museum of musical instruments. The original is attributed to Kohler and dated to around 1856.

One of the rims - the tarnished solder seam on the interior of the mouthpiece indicates that the cup was made in the traditional way - by folding silver sheet round then soldering a seam before forming it to a mandrel. A second seam between the rim and the cup is less visible.

My maker's mark followed by the UK fineness marking, the London Assay office mark, the year mark and the Common Control Mark.

The texture on this mouthpiece was formed by tapping it with a ball-peen hammer with the hard mandrel still inside. The interior is, of course, identical to that of the smooth-finish Kohler copy. The soldered seam is just visible, running down the side of the mouthpiece.