Makers & Designers

Active: c.1840-1860

Thomas Stephenson (his name also recorded as Stevenson) was a silversmith active in Cape Town during the mid-nineteenth century, working from Sir Lowry Street by 1846. His surviving output ranges across table cutlery, christening mugs, double beakers and snuff boxes, reflecting the varied domestic and personal silver produced by Cape workshops of the period. Like many of his Cape contemporaries, he struck his wares with English-style pseudo hallmarks alongside his own TS mark, a common practice among colonial silversmiths working outside the reach of a formal assay system. His work is particularly noted for fine engraved decoration.