Thanksgiving's coming & need help w stuffing spoon hallm

[merwid]

Recently given 13inch long "stuffing" spoon with rat-tail design on reverse. Hallmarks look like:
- letter "G" in a shield-shaped depression
- four small overlapping disks (kind of like a 4 leaf clover) in a round depression
- the number "4" in a round depression
- the number "8" in a round depression
Can anyone identify the maker and/or tell me whether this piece is silver or silverplate?

[url=http://www.parkyourpic.com/][img]
[/url]
[/img][/b]

[SilverSurfer]

I'm not into silverplate, but I believe that the marks shown are those of Gerity for their plated items.