I am looking for any information on the maker of this spoon. Any other information like country or approximate date would be helpful. Thanks
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Bright Cut Silver Spoon Maker?
Re: Bright Cut Silver Spoon Maker?
The mark is definitely a Korean-language silver standard mark, not a maker's mark. If memory serves, it means "pure silver" and corresponds to the Japanese "jungin" mark used ca 1890-1940.
Regarding the date, I have a slightly different version of the same mark on a teapot that I am confident is Japanese manufacture. Scouring various sources, I have found no clear consensus on whether this style of marking with the traditional Chinese / Japanese character for "silver" along with the Korean word for "silver" (as in your mark) is from any particular period, though it is definitely no earlier than 1900. My tentative hypothesis is that this mark dates from the period of Japanese economic expansion in Korea (1896 onward) and colonization of Korea (1910-1945), and prior to the Japanese move to obliterate the Korean language (mid-1930s to 1945). My teapot, probably manufactured in Japan ca 1900-1920, is marked with "pure silver" in Korean only, so surely intended for the Korean market. Again, this is merely a hypothesis based on a few years of research trying to pin down these marks.
After two years with no replies at all, hopefully this will be of some use until someone with expertise in Korean can enlighten with a better answer.
Regarding the date, I have a slightly different version of the same mark on a teapot that I am confident is Japanese manufacture. Scouring various sources, I have found no clear consensus on whether this style of marking with the traditional Chinese / Japanese character for "silver" along with the Korean word for "silver" (as in your mark) is from any particular period, though it is definitely no earlier than 1900. My tentative hypothesis is that this mark dates from the period of Japanese economic expansion in Korea (1896 onward) and colonization of Korea (1910-1945), and prior to the Japanese move to obliterate the Korean language (mid-1930s to 1945). My teapot, probably manufactured in Japan ca 1900-1920, is marked with "pure silver" in Korean only, so surely intended for the Korean market. Again, this is merely a hypothesis based on a few years of research trying to pin down these marks.
After two years with no replies at all, hopefully this will be of some use until someone with expertise in Korean can enlighten with a better answer.