Victorian or Not.

Over the years I must have sold over 100 of these Scottish agate dirk brooches, and although essentially a Victorian design, (most date to between 1870-1920), their enduring popularity means they are still being produced to this very day. This particular one does seem to cause some confusion among sellers though. It's by Charles Horner, and is clearly hallmarked for 1961, (I've also sold one by Horner dated as late as 1964), I have yet to see an eBay seller correctly date this brooch. They assume that because it's Victorian in design, and it's by Charles Horner, a "Victorian silversmith", ( ignoring the fact that the Charles Horner company didn't go out of business until 1984), then it must be Victorian. A cursory glance at the hallmarks would seem to confirm this, but if they bothered to look more closely at the hallmarks they would see that not only is the date letter font slightly different for the two era's, but the shape of the cartouche surrounding the date letter is also clearly different.
Always check the date letter fonts carefully on any hallmarked piece, just because it looks Victorian doesn't mean it is; if you don't have a book of your own that lists the fonts used, and their corresponding dates, then look on websites that do;

http://freespace.virgin.net/a.data/frames

or

http://www.silvercollection.it/englishsilverhallmarksCHE.html