PUNCH/TODDY LADLE SILVER OR PLATED? HELP PLEASE!

[Mike61]

Hi folks, new to the site and looking for information regarding a ladle that I have acquired, unsure if silver or plated.
I do not recognise the marks any help would be most appreciated. Thanks.

[dognose]

Hi Mike,

Welcome to the Forum.

The marks are typical of those used by English platers. The 'crown' mark was outlawed on plated items in 1896, so it pre-dates that year.

Always difficult to tell from a photo, but the handle is likely to be made of baleen, a material found in the roof of the mouth of a whale.

Trev.

[Mike61]

Thanks for the info Trev, would it be possible to to find out the makers/platers from the mark. as far as I can make out there is an S E possibly a crab and the crown. Thanks again.

[silvermakersmarks]

Samuel Evans / Samuel Evans & Sons of Birmingham. See the extremely useful silvercollection.it site.

[Mike61]

Thanks for all the info...great stuff!!

[dognose]

Although I have absolutely no reason to doubt the attribution of the mark to Samuel Evans, I would advise caution and prefix possibly/probably Samuel Evans until there is some proof to the attribution. In this case the author may well have seen an advertisement, catalogue, billhead, or similar, that shows a reproduction of the mark. Unlike hallmarks, which in most cases are checkable, plater's marks were rarely registered and information/misinformation regarding them is passed from source to source with the root of the information being lost in time. Far too often in the past people have just cross referenced trade directories with the initials contained within a set of marks and have come to a conclusion with the lack of any other evidence to prove it, this conclusion is passed from internet website to internet website, from printed reference to printed reference and so on until it is seen so many times that we have no doubt it must be true, and maybe it is, but we must also be aware that maybe, sometimes, it's not.

Trev.