The maker's mark of "WC" is a common one of this period. This means that we cannot be certain of the attribution of tongs marked "WC".

William Chatterton entered several marks, the first of which was on 7^th April 1762 as a small-worker, with others up to 1763. He is recorded in the parliamentary report list of 1773, without category. William Chatterton is an interesting character as he was prosecuted for “soldering bits of standard silver to Tea Tongs and buckles....” and is named as an offender against the hallmarking laws. The interesting point about this is that this means he must have been a maker of Tea tongs. This does not necessarily mean he made ordinary sugar tongs, but does suggest that he may have done. Some of William Chatterton’s marks have pellets, other are without. From an examination of Grimwade’s the two marks shown are both distinctive being in an irregular patterned punch, one with and one without a pellet. Grimwade also identifies two other oblong punches, one without a pellet, registered in 1766.

The mark "WC" is often identified as William Cripps. Personally I think this is unlikely with sugar tongs as he died in 1767. Most sugar tongs were made after this date. However as is often the case with attempting to attribute sugar tongs to a particular maker, we can not be sure.

The other potential maker with a maker's mark of "WC" is William Cattell.

Click here to see tongs by William Cattell