mark too small to read?

[DianaGaleM]

I have what appears to be a bon-bon spoon (length 148 mm or 5-13/16 inches):





But the mark is so small I can't decipher it. My best guess at the moment is Cooper Bros:
http://www.925-1000.com/silverplate__Icon.html

which means reading the mark vertically on the stem:


or, if not, possibly reading it horizontally on the stem:


Any hope here?

[dragonflywink]

My eyes are too bad anymore to make out your mark, but will say that I've only seen that Cooper Bros. mark on plated holloware, in conjunction with their other marks - as to purpose, looks like a jam spoon to me...

~Cheryl

[DianaGaleM]

You'll be relieved to know it's not your eyes, it's the resolution of the image. I've taken another stab at getting my camera to focus in on it, and I've put the full resolution image on my web site – much too large to upload here:

http://20thCenturyRedux.com/images/IMG_4175_bon-bon-spoon_stamp.JPG

This image is clearer, but it still may not be decipherable. I think this is going to be one of those cases where someone familiar with the mark will "see" it, but for the rest of us, it's unintelligible.

[Vayne]

Actually is it bad that the first image hurt my eyes less? I was wondering if you'd tried making a pencil mark of the image (putting paper over the item and then rubbing the pencil over) and then blowing up the image? Not sure if this would work, but anything could help. Sorry I am blind. :)

[DianaGaleM]

I'm afraid it's much too small to get a rubbing.

The mark is dwarfed by a pencil lead:


It's even smaller than Lincoln's ear on a U.S. penny:


I just got out my dial calipers and measured the mark: it's only 1.7 mm long. No wonder it's so hard to read!