posted 03-27-2005 01:03 PM            

A Well Traveled Silversmith, A Well Traveled Spoon

Here is the maker's mark on a Hanoverian tablespoon with a small, raised drop on the back of the bowl, as it first appeared; the maker's mark is accompanied by a French mark denoting imported silver. Its prior English owner thought it to be a Provincial spoon, c.1740.

Can you identify the maker and the country of origin? If someone (other than wev) can identify him, or after a suitable interval, if no one does, I will post the identification, along with "cleaned up" and retouched photos, and some information about the maker. We will then move the thread to the appropriate forum.

posted 03-29-2005 10:25 PM            

Do we get to see an image of the entire spoon?

Fred

[This message has been edited by FredZ (edited 03-30-2005).]

posted 03-30-2005 10:42 AM            

This mark is that of Thauvet Besly (Beslij), c.1691 - 1757. An account of his lineage and activities can be found in Elegant Plate by Deborah Dependahl Waters.

Born in New York of Huguenot parents who emigrated to New York from France by way of London and Charleston, South Carolina, young Thauvet was sent to London sometime before 1711, where he is presumed to have learned the silversmith's trade. He was admitted to the Silversmith's Guild in Amsterdam in 1715, and married in 1719, becoming a member of the Walloon Church. He and his wife returned to New York in 1728, where they transferred their membership to the Reformed Dutch Church of New York. Presumably he worked in the community of Dutch silversmiths in New York City until his death in 1757.

While in Amsterdam, he registered two marks; one of these, conjoined letters TB beneath a crown, he is supposed to have continued to use in New York. However, two such marks apparently exist -- both being shown in references -- one with serifs on the crossbar of the T and a pronounced "toe" on the foot of the T; the other apparently lacks both these features. The first appears on this spoon and on the two porringers shown in Elegant Plate; the second on the two tea caddies in the same book.* All three strikes of the first punch appear to have been struck obliquely, digging in deeply along the left side, thus making the vertical bar of the conjoined letters appear incorrectly as wide and tapering. In the photographs below the marks are shown as they appear after a light cleaning (left) and following retouching on the computer (right).

Silver made in Amsterdam during the Napoleonic annexation of the Netherlands bears French hallmarks, but this spoon is too early for that period, and the import mark is too late. The French import mark on the spoon is an insect, probably an ant or a beetle, that has been in use since 1835, but not in a rectangular punch at first. If I interpret the entry in Tardy correctly, the rectangular punch was introduced in 1893 for silver imported from certain named countries, not including the United States, and for silver imported from all countries since 1971. How the spoon got to France, and then to England, is unknown, but it is later in form than any that would have been made before Besly returned to New York, and so is unlikely to have been made by him while still in Amsterdam.

Its appearance across the Atlantic may be indicative of Besly's ties with the Old World, or it may have been brought in by a collector or dealer. As there is no provenance, we shall never know.

* See wev's newly revised page for the second mark.

posted 03-30-2005 07:01 PM            

Thanks for the challenge and the fun.... Having an extensive library is certainly a help on these things.

posted 03-31-2005 11:46 PM            

Obviously this is much too small a sample on which to base any conclusions about styles peculiar to the Dutch silversmithing community, but I think it an interesting observation, and I would be interested to hear of other examples that do or do not fit this pattern, or any statements in the literature that may bear on the question.

Additional discussion and illustrations of the Bancker and Lansing spoons can be seen in the earlier Bancker thread (c. 1735 Adrian Bancker coin silver spoon).