British rat tail spoons ?

[dinio]

Hello,

I have a set of 6 dessert spoons which are 6" 7/8 long and weigh 6.4 troy ounces. They are in the rat tail pattern and bear no monogram or armorial.



They are in very good shape without any defect except a small ding on one bowl and they look as if they were never used. But their hallmarks are almost completely worn on most of them which would mean that they have been cleaned many times. It seems that each bears 2 marks: one resembling a gothic letter, the other resembling nothing.



According to the spoon pattern, to the shape of the marks and to their location on the handle, I guessed they could be British, dating before 1800. Unfortunately I did not find any fit with British hallmarks in Tardy's book and on this website. Also if the letter is a date letter, what could be the second one: an assay office mark? a maker's mark?
So my question is: can anyone confirm if these spoons are British or not? And can anyone give some advice for a better identification as to the age, origin and maker?

Thanks in advance,
Dinio
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[Granmaa]

Well, English Hanoverian rat-tail usually means 1705-1730, but these spoons just don't sit well with me. First of all it's rare to see a dessert spoon in this pattern, very rare to see six of them, and for them to be in perfect condition is unheard of (by me at least).
I'd also expect to see four hallmarks: maker, date, Britannia and lion's head erased. I don't recognize the letters on your spoons.

Having said that, the proportions and shape of the spoons is exactly what I'd expect.

I'm sorry I can't be of any real help.

Miles
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[dognose]

Hi Dinio,

Excellent set of spoons, I'm wondering about the possibility that they may be Irish, the Dublin Date letter for 1715 would appear to be a good match.

Regards Trev.
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[dinio]

Hi Trev, Hi Miles,
It looks like if Trev has found the right direction. I was in the wrong one as I put the pictures upside down ! I have checked your suggestion and it appears that this mark is the gothic Y letter used in the Dublin assay office in 1715-16. I have made a photo composition with the two sides of the mark and it fits very well. Here is the result :



The outline of the mark is exactly as expected and also the shape of the letter looks very similar. This date letter is also consistent with the period given by Granmaa based on the style. The only possible discrepancy is that the spoons have no central ridge to the front of the stem but only a pip, which I thought had occurred later in 18C.

Now the fact is that there are only 2 marks on these spoons. If the Irish hypothesis is valid, what happened to the harp crowned? Was it worn? On all the 6 spoons? Or what else? I do not see any evidence that the second mark could be the harp crowned.

I will try to make some similar photo composition with the second mark which could be the maker's mark, and will let you know.

Dinio
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[Granmaa]

Hi Dinio,

I wouldn't worry about the spine or the pip: in the early 18th century period you can find spoons with spines and spoons without, the pip doesn't surprise me either.

Here's a pair of rat-tails from the same period.


Miles
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[dinio]

Thanks Miles for your comment. It was a bit surprising for me because it is the first time I have rat tail hanoverian spoons and I was not aware of all the variations.

Since my last post I studied the pictures of the other mark and I think I solved the puzzle. In fact there is only 4 out of the 6 spoons which have something readable for this mark.

The 1st one is the less worn. The left side of the outline can be easily identified then we have a curve which is connected to the outline with a small bridge. Then on the upper side we can see 2 loops and below there are segments connected to these loops.



The 2nd mark does not bring more information except that it helps confirm the elements seen in the first one: left side of the outline, curve, bridge, 2 faint loops and connected segments.



The 3rd one, even if worn a lot brings a new piece of information: the curve on the left hand side is continued with a loop. This 3rd mark also contains the two upper loops and the connected segments.



The 4th and last one, is also worn a lot but it is very interesting as it shows the lower part of the mark.



Thanks to the loop identified in the previous mark, we can continue the curve on the left hand side and we recognize the script letter E. If the first letter is in script font, we can guess that another script letter is probable. On the right hand side of this bottom part we can see two very faint circular elements which connect perfectly with the segments seen on the first three marks. It seems reasonable to assume that these circles are bottom loops belonging to the searched letter. Putting these 4 loops and the connecting segments together, we easily deduce that this letter is a script W.
The good thing is that in the index of the maker's marks available in Wyler's book of old silver, there is only one single mark containing EW in script. It is the mark of Edward Workman, a silversmith who was working in Dublin in the beginning of 18C, that is to say exactly during the period where these spoons were marked in Dublin (1715) :



When looking at this mark we can see 2 stars at the top and at the bottom. If I look carefully at the 4th mark above, I can see some very faint element which seems to correspond to the bottom star. Is it just an effect of my imagination ?

I am interested in a confirmation of this analysis and in more information about this maker. There is also the question of the harp crowned which cannot be seen at all on these spoons. Any explanation?

Dinio
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[dognose]

Hi Dinio,

Well done, I believe you are correct in thinking that these spoons were made by Edward Workman.

Edward Workman was apprenticed to James Welding in 1693, he became a Quarter Brother in 1699. He was a Freeman of the Dublin Goldsmith's Company from 1702 until 1725 which presumably was the date of his retirement or death, he was Master from 1712-1713.
His address was given as Essex Bridge and in 1716 he took into apprenticeship one Charles Prendergast.

As for the Crowned Harp, I can only imagine that it was applied to an area of the stem that suffered more wear than the rest.

Thanks for showing these spoons, its been very interesting.

Regards Trev.
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