I've already looked through the website and searched the forum, but I can't identify this spoon's composition & age. I've put this post in the silverplate forum because I'm just not able to tell.
The bowl has a cityscape above the word “BREMEN”, which I think is the town in Germany. It seems to be a very sharp, clean embossed image. The building on the left of the bowl is a pretty reasonable likeness of the Bremen Cathedral (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bremen_Cathedral) down to the clock in one of the towers.
The top of the handle shows a key on a shield below a crown. It resembles a Bremen town mark (http://www.925-1000.com/Fgerman_marks_b1884.html) that would have been in use until the mid 1880s. I don't think the key has a Stade Gothic cross handle but everything else points to Bremen.
There are no makers marks or any other markings of any kind. No numbers indicating silver content, and no “STERLING”. The back of the handle has a few small pits (especially near the top of the handle) that could have been inclusions from casting before it was attached to the bowl. The spoon has a heavy coat of tarnish/patina which I'm afraid to remove. (I know it's a “bad idea” to polish a coin that has toning-- does the same rule apply to old silver spoons?) As far as I can tell around the tarnish, the spoon is silver. It could be silver-plated or it could have a silver content like .800 instead of .925, but there's nothing else on the spoon to give me a clue. I'm using my high-power reading glasses and the small inset lens of a lighted magnifier, so if there's a number or another mark on the handle then I'm pretty sure I'd either see it or see where it wore off.
This spoon has been in my family for at least five generations. My great-great grandfather emigrated from Germany in 1880, returned for a short visit in 1887 or 1888, and then never went back again. I'm still trying to find out where he was raised or whether he would have been likely to pick up a souvenir spoon in Bremen. However the dates of his travels could match the spoon's town mark and lack of other markings.
Any ideas on how I could figure out the spoon's composition or its date? Thanks again!
