For the antique golfer
Reading maker's marks on hickory irons
You have found a name stamped on an old iron head — a shop, sometimes a symbol, occasionally both. This is how to work out who actually forged it, using the cleek marks of Tom Stewart of St Andrews as the worked example.
Why an old iron carries two names
A hickory-era iron head passed through two pairs of hands before it reached a golfer. The first belonged to a cleek maker — a blacksmith-turned-specialist who forged iron heads by the crate. The second belonged to a professional shop, which bought those heads, fitted the hickory shafts and grips, and stamped its own name on the back beside the forger's mark. So the name in large lettering is usually the shop that sold the club, and the smaller symbol near the hosel is the mark of the man who actually forged it.
Collectors call that small symbol a cleek mark. It is the single most useful thing on the club: it names the maker, brackets the date, and separates a genuine antique from a later reproduction with a convincing shop name on it.
Where to look, in order
- 1.Kill the light except one low lamp. Raking light across the back of the blade shows hand-struck marks that vanish under even, bright light — polished heads often keep nothing but disturbed grain.
- 2.Look just behind the hosel, on the back of the blade. That is where cleek makers struck their symbol; large shop names sit higher, nearer the top edge.
- 3.Read the arc of lettering. Most cleek makers punched their name in a curve — the letters of a genuine arc sit at slightly different depths and angles, because the punch was walked round by hand. Perfectly even lettering is a machine, and a machine means somebody recent.
- 4.Find the symbol. Stewarts of St Andrews used a pipe; the Forgan family used a crown and, earlier, a three-feather plume; other makers used anchors, hearts, stars and plain initials. The symbol names the forge.
- 5.Note any registration text. When a mark was legally registered, the maker added small lettering such as 'Trade Mark' or 'REG' beneath the symbol — a dating clue in itself.
- 6.Read the face last. Smooth, then dot-punched, then plain again when deep grooves were outlawed — the face finish corroborates the date the mark suggests.
A worked example: the pipe of Tom Stewart
Take the most prolific iron forger of the hickory era. Tom Stewart Jr. of Argyle Street, St Andrews (1861–1931) forged iron heads — nothing else — and his cleek mark is a pipe, struck behind the hosel. Three versions cover his working life:
- The serpent, beneath a fine arc of letteringc. 1893 – c. 1905
- The small pipe, bowl the width of a match headc. 1905 – early 1920s
- The large pipe, bowl the size of a peaearly 1920s – 1931
His full arc reads “T. Stewart · Maker · St Andrews”. So an iron stamped “A. J. Miles, London” with a small pipe behind the hosel is a Miles-shop club forged by Stewart — and both facts are on the head. This site is devoted to reading exactly that evidence; the full cleek-mark archive photographs each mark, and says plainly where the dating is contested.
Does the mark change what it is worth?
Considerably. A named, datable maker puts a club in the collector market; an unstamped head is a curiosity. But the name alone does not set the price — condition, club type and documented sales do. Once you have read the mark and the club type, compare against recorded sold prices rather than asking prices, which flatter everything.