posted 07-09-2005 04:57 PM            

This is a continental silver wedding spoon from my collection that I would have thought to be from anywhere in the 18th century. Unfortunately I am unable to decipher the marks as they are not completely struck. The spoon's handle is a fairly strange branch coral-like design. The applied bowl (on which hammering marks are slightly visible) is engraved on the back with two coats of arms suspended from a branch design. There are also two sets of initials. So I am sure it is a marriage spoon.

Interestingly, at Brimfield earlier this week, a dealer had a spoon with the same style of engraving on the back (i.e., the same style of lettering, the same configuration of the coats of arms). Seeing it prompted me to dig this spoon out and try to solve the mystery. The Brimfield dealer claimed that he had purchased his from a NY estate, and through genealogical research had traced the spoon's coupling of initials to ca 1600. I do not think my spoon is quite that old. The allegedly 16th/17th spoon I saw was an old seal-top style, with a teardrop bowl. It was Dutch.

Can anybody make sense out of the marks I have posted? Or suggest a date/location of origin for this spoon? (The spoon is 6" long).