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Why would a silver maker cover the city mark? Does anyone know where this spoon was made and how old it is? Thanks!

I don't understand what you mean by "cover the city mark". The London crowned leopard's head mark looks perfectly normal in your picture, albeit with a bit of wear due to use and polishing. That said you have a spoon with a date letter which I am pretty sure is "d" for the assay year 1739/40. The maker's mark is either SM or WS but I am away from home and do not have access to my references. Perhaps somebody else will look in their copy of Grimwade and supply the answer.

Phil

The marker's mar SW is listed unidentified here: https://www.silvermakersmarks.co.uk/Mak ... SZ.html#SW
The date letter could be "h" for 1743 which would be appropriate for the maker. Spoons were hallmarked on the stem at that time so the hallmarks are often "squeezed" and that's why they can be partially damaged or even illegible. And the decoration of the spoon is from the 19th century which might have caused some damage to the hallmarks too.

silvermakersmarks wrote:I don't understand what you mean by "cover the city mark". The London crowned leopard's head mark looks perfectly normal in your picture, albeit with a bit of wear due to use and polishing. That said you have a spoon with a date letter which I am pretty sure is "d" for the assay year 1739/40. The maker's mark is either SM or WS but I am away from home and do not have access to my references. Perhaps somebody else will look in their copy of Grimwade and supply the answer.

Phil

Thanks Phil. I looked again at the third mark from the left with a magnifying glass and I cannot see a crowned leopard's head. What I see is something that looks like a crown, but the rest looks to me like a smooth surface. As a layman I thought someone "covered the original mark" by mistake or with full intent for whatever reason.

To me the crowned leopard's head looks just like it should after years of polishing. The other hallmarks seem to be deeper so they are not that much affected by polishing. I have a salt where all hallmarks are worn by polishing so that only their outlines can be recognized.

Sasropakis wrote:To me the crowned leopard's head looks just like it should after years of polishing. The other hallmarks seem to be deeper so they are not that much affected by polishing. I have a salt where all hallmarks are worn by polishing so that only their outlines can be recognized.

Thank you!

I should have looked for the maker's mark in my own listings under SW rather than SM or WS (thanks Sasropakis). Grimwade lists this mark in the section of his book entitled "Unregistered Marks". These are, in general, not really unregistered but cannot be researched because the relevant register, the 1739-1758 Smallworkers' Register, has been lost. The start date of this register is significant because in 1739 all goldsmiths (and silversmiths) were required to register new marks because of an Act of Parliament of 1738. So we have lost a significant amount of information; i.e. the new marks of all smallworkers who were working at that time (assuming that they did, in fact, re-register). The outcome of all this is that we may never know the maker's name.

Phil