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I should have added that it does not appear to be a gold mark so your enquiry may not be in the most appropriate forum category to get an answer.

This won't be much help. My eyesight is not the best but I read the mark as :ЧФЯ. The Cyrillic letters transliterate as Ch F Ya. It may or may not be relevant that Ya (Я) is the initial of the Russian word for amber. The initials presumably identify a workshop but I would only be guessing if I t...

Yes. There are cases where the marks are a complete forgery. This may be on a fake antique, or to appear to guarantee a silver quality that is not actually the case, or indeed simply to avoid paying duty in the days when submitting an item for assay incurred this payment. The so called duty dodgers ...

A few quick points on the marks. Heal's London Goldsmiths records the Devonshire Watkins partnership from 1756 to 1773. Grimwade shows their mark with a pellet between the two sets of initials which seems to be what you have on your ladle and I would regard his work as the more definitive. This seem...

The lion (leopard) had lost his crown by 1883, so has to be 1773. As Warren says, the closed up mark nearest the bowl will be the maker's mark. The maker's and assay office marks were applied before the spoon was finished. Subsequent final shaping of the spoon could close the marks up, particularly ...

Oh dear, Buckler, you do enjoy upsetting my happy certainties. For decades I have cheerfully ascribed any SA mark on a spoon to Stephen Adams. You have now caused me to dig out the handful of SA spoons actually in my possession: please see the pictures below which will also reveal my inadequacies as...

I’m not sure it will be easy for anybody to come up with a suggestion. All I can say is that I don’t believe it is English and I don’t know enough about styles across mainland Europe to rule anywhere else in or out. More or less similar finials are sometimes found on English 16th century spoons but ...

The piece seems to be a tea glass holder. The marks are Russian, or probably Soviet, and I think not for silver but something like pewter or perhaps electroplated nickel silver . MM7 probably identifies the factory and MET1COPT means something like 1st grade metal, However, it needs an expert in Sov...

In the case of composite objects such as those with hinged lids it was standard practice to apply a full set of marks to the main body of the item but only partial marks, sufficient to confirm the silver standard, to the attached parts.

Tone

I fear there is no point in debating the possibility of 1734. The object itself can be dated on form to late 19th/early 20th century. In any case, if you look at the full set of marks for 1734 you will note the different town mark and crowned leopard's head.

David

Are you sure this is silverplated rather than stainless steel? The lettering on your first picture seems to be the Russian abbreviation for stainless.

It is not possible to deduce an English name just from initials, but anyway this looks to me as if it could be Russian like the other two pieces you mention: АМП, perhaps for a first name, patronymic and surname ( имя отчество и фамилия)?

I'm afraid I don't recognise those marks. They are not British or Irish silver marks. As I said, the pattern of the items suggests a later date than 1842 so this may be one of those occasions when a bit of family history has managed to attach itself to the wrong objects. Sorry I cannot be more help....

Sorry for a delayed comment - we've been fully occupied with family over Christmas. However, I guess you may well be right about the NC mark. To be absolutely sure I suppose would require the unlikely opportunity to examine actual examples of the worn and unworn marks side by side. A little while ag...

A reproduction of the earliest known English fork, now in the V and A, see http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O104714/fork-richard-crosse/ When you are able to provide a better image of the hallmarks I think you will find they are about 3 centuries later than 1632 rather than just a couple of years. ...

The style is more 1900ish than 1840ish so not from Ireland in the first half of the 19th century. If there are no marks, almost certainly base metal rather than silver, I'm sorry to say.

On the basis of the photos I would probably go for “s”, but you have the advantage of seeing the spoons “in the flesh”. Either way, Old English fits in nicely with the 1770s by which time Hanoverian was on its way out as far as English flatware is concerned. You were right to feel very tentative abo...

The stems look like those of 18th century spoons, I assume Hanoverian, so I would suggest 1773 and Thomas Chawner, a known and prolific spoonmaker.

It looks like a tobacco box but perhaps at this size more likely a snuff box?

While it is possible that somewhere in the West a deal was done with one of the Soviet Trade Delegations to import some cut-price, base metal flatware, I think it unlikely. I doubt whether such items would be stamped with the domestic price and it seems to me more likely that the set was either a gi...