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Hi All,

I could use some help with identifying this pair of spoons.









They appear to have the letters 'ANIH' as part of the mark. They are about 5" (13cm) length.

Any thoughts on the maker and the meaning of the lettering on the front? Would these spoons have had a particular use?

Any input gratefully appreciated.

Trev.

I've seen several this kind of spoons with unknown mark. I guessed they are made in Hong Kong after 1947.

Hi,

Looking at the spoons I believe it to be rice serving spoons.



Oel.

Thank you both for your comments. The dating, and the use, both seem very likely.

Trev.

The characters on the front of each spoon mean

"Peaceful / Quiet / Happy / Healthy" and "Serene / Peaceful" (top spoon in the first photo)

"Right / Proper / Correct" and "Lucky / Propitious / Good." (bottom spoon in the first photo)

The contrast here seems to be the virtuous behaviour of female ("quiet and serene") and male ("morally upright and successful"), and therefore this pair of spoons was probably intended as a wedding gift.

Judging from the finely detailed work in the bowls, it seems unlikely that these had any utilitarian purpose, and may have only been for display or ceremonial use, indicating the honored place of bride and groom at a wedding banquet. While this is only a guess on my part, I very much doubt that these were ever intended as rice servers, even as part of an individual place setting. The stem of the spoon is too thin and would almost certainly bend the first time it was pushed into hot steamed rice. Of course, the proof would be in the pudding, or in this case, the rice. . . .

Regards

David R

Hi David,

Many thanks for adding these interesting details. I wonder, do the characters in the maker's mark offer any further information regarding an identity for the maker?

Trev.

Hi Trev,

I believe the characters of the maker's mark are 盛秦. The second character, however, seems to be a variant form of the standard character 秦, or an abbreviated or obscure character, which frustrates most search efforts. My usual bag of tricks has therefore turned up nothing.

My initial impression was that these spoons are Straits or SE Asian, but I defer to Rauls' Hong Kong attribution.

Cheers
David

Hi David,

Many thanks for your thoughts.

Regards, Trev.

For the Chinese mark, it's more likely that the characters are "盛泰". Not only because the 2nd char look more closed to "泰", but also "泰" is used more often than "秦" in brand names.

Hi Rauls,

Would those two characters translate to something like 'ANIH', or would they refer to something else?

Regards, Trev.

The Chinese maker's mark is likely either

(1)盛泰, transliterated Shengtai.

or (2) 盛秦, transliterated Shengqing.

ANIH is not the Chinese transliteration of these characters.

Hopefully, someone else will shed more light on both the Chinese mark and ANIH.

Regards

David R

Hi David,

Once again, many thanks for your input, it's most appreciated.

Regards, Trev.