I still read it as an A, but I do see what you mean. I hope my reading is not being over-influenced by the context of the question but who knows…. One thing Silver Inquiry might usefully do, if not already done, is hold the actual spoon with its mark alongside the mark as reproduced in Grimwade. Arc...
Perhaps, in trying to be brief, I failed to make myself clear. I am not claiming I can see a point for point match between the two illustrations. When you come across a mark that does not seem a good match for any recorded marks, you may reasonably explore whether a tentative or reasonably firm attr...
I can't match this to the mark of any other known spoonmaker of the period so would not rule Archer out. He was a prolific spoonmaker so may have had more than one version of the punch. It may have been poorly struck and then distorted by the final shaping of the stem after hallmarking. And wear can...
In England you won't normally find marrow spoons earlier than the 1690s. The bowl shape of this spoon doesn't look quite right for an English example from that period and indeed less so for a later spoon. A view of the back of the bowl might help with dating and placing. Does it have a rattail? If s...
I agree that handles of the period are usually more fanciful but there is some wear on your handles. Is it possible that the original handles were damaged in some way and replaced, perhaps 100 years or more after the piece was originally made?
If the maker’s original pattern name was known I think the information would have surfaced somewhere. Why not just call it “Fiddle and Cartouche” by analogy with Fiddle and Shell etc? Combined with the name Whiting that would identify it for those interested in this particular pattern while serving ...
I don't know a name for the pattern. I have only seen it on flatware by Whiting and believe it was probably unique to him.While it is a rare pattern, I notice the occasional example from time to time.
If practice then was similar to today's, the maker could have held a punch with the retailer's (sponsor's) mark when there was sufficiently regular throughput of business to justify this. If an order was cancelled before delivery but after the items had been struck with the sponsor's mark, the piece...
Trev I am afraid it has taken me a while to respond. Plated silver is not really my “thing” but we do have quite a lot of Mappin and Webb silverplated flatware and cutlery which sits somewhere between stainless steel in the kitchen and real silver for “best”. It is in their Athenian pattern, an Art ...
I suppose that on a deeper punch with one set of initials above another the effect of not striking it vertically would be magnified. And in a workshop with a large output there might not have been quite the same care over each strike.
Yes, the second hole is a puzzle, and I wasn't too confident of my suggestion. The horse shoe engraving suggests "good luck", but if that is a clue it hasn't led me to a better suggestion. Let's hope somebody here has the definitive answer.
I have seen a good many spoons with this crest, mostly early 19th century fiddle pattern, and have an example on an 1819 table spoon that is stamped No 18 on the back, implying that it came from a large set. I have it down as a Harvey family crest (but am no expert in heraldry). On the examples I ha...
Yes. By the 17th century the Holy Dove/Holy Spirit nimbus was the most common. I believe it was originaly reserved for the Master, but in the course of the 16th/17th centuries it came to be used for all the apostles as well.
I agree that this is probably not an adapted tablespoon, though there are plenty of adaptations around for the unwary - mostly of 18th century spoons. I am sure your finial is a Victorian model and not a casting from an original. I have never seen one like it on an early English apostle spoon. For e...