Can you find biographical details of a silversmith whose initials are
WGK and who often appears on Birmingham items of the Edwardian period
- e.g.1904?

I found two mentions of the mark as that of W G Keight & Co,
Birmingham, both items from the the early 1900s, but nothing that gave
more details about this company.

Dear puzzled23-ga,

I?ve exhausted internet sources, so you may have to conducted further
enquires of the assay office below, or physically in the archives of
Staffordshire or Birmingham Record Offices. I?m not posting this as an
answer at the moment as there is no certainty in the findings.

Let me explain. Myoarin-ga (below) helpfully pointed the way to the
name of W G Keight & Co. This site states that the mark WGK is W G
Keight & Co. I could find no confirmation of this from a reliable
authority.
http://www.smpub.com/cgi-bin/ubb/ubbmisc.cgi?action=findthread&forum=Forum1&number=1&thisthread=000989&go=older

You may perhaps have to track down this book: Kenneth, C J, The
Silversmiths of Birmingham (1981)
http://www.argentinglesi.com/birminghaming.php

Or make enquiries of the Birmingham Assay Office.
http://domain751573.sites.fasthosts.com/assayoffice/index.html

A search of the 1901 census does produce the following entry which may
be of W G Keight. You could to purchase a copy of the return to obtain
any other information about his family.

William Keight
Age 39 
Born Wednesbury Staffs 
Lives Staffordshire Handsworth 
Manufacturers Silversmith
http://www.1901census.nationalarchives.gov.uk/results.asp?wci=person_results&searchwci=person_search


I could find no entry for him on directories of the time but there is
only a limited number available on the internet.

Although I could find a 1901 census entry for him, I couldn?t find one
in the 1881 census. However, a search under the surname Knight did
produce a possible match. The age is right and the place of birth
matches. The name may have been misread or misheard

William George KNIGHT Son U  Male  19  Wednesbury, Stafford, England Jeweller  	  
http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Search/census/household_record.asp?HOUSEHOLD_CODE=1881BR_3081834&HOUSEHOLD_SUB=1&frompage=5


answerfinder-ga

Many thanks for your comments and research this far.