Mappin & Webb Cruiseline Spoon?

[hpidaves]

I have a Mappin & Webb Princess Plate teaspoon (5-3/4") that I believe is from a cruise ship. The pattern is somewhat similar to a Kings pattern, but instead of the shell motif at the tip of the handle, there is a crown (looking at it with the bowl pointing up). I can just barely make out the "SS" under the tip of the crown (if that truly is a crown). The rest is pretty worn. I have taken lots of photos, some through 10x and 30x magnification.

Any cruise line experts out there?

Regards,
Dave

[hpidaves]

OK, so I'm not quite sure why I didn't think of this before, but if I orient the spoon so the crown and letters are upright (bowl pointing up), they appear to begin with "EM" and end with "SS". After a little research, I discovered that Mappin & Webb made serve-ware for the RMS Empress, a ship that was owned by the Canadian Pacific Steamship Company and built in Ireland. The ship was ultimately sunk by the German submarine U-32 on October 28, 1940. The Empress was actually in the process of being towed back to Ireland after being attacked two days earlier by a German Condor long range bomber, so there were very few casualties.

Any thoughts?

Thanks,
Dave

[Traintime]

The nighmare of Mappin & Webb date code symbols: viewtopic.php?f=38&t=24149&p=59174&hili ... 8ee#p59174

[hpidaves]

I took a few photos of the maker's mark under 10x magnification. I have seen multiple references to PRINCES PLATE, but this spoon clearly shows PRINCESS PLATE (an extra "S"). Also, there is some sort of mark after the PRINCESS PLATE mark, but I can't make out what it is.

[hpidaves]

Closer examination of the last shape appears to be a script "K" or "R" date code.

[hpidaves]

From the post referenced above:

"Government mark: 1957 - Mappin & Webb date mark: Upper case 'K' within an heraldic shield."

My spoon appears to have a lower case "k" with heraldic shield as a date mark. If we assume the upper case "K" represents 1957, and all 26 letters are used, that puts the spoon's lower case "k" date mark at 1932. This seems to match up pretty well with the manufacture date of the RMS Empress of Britain(1930).

There was an older vessel named the RMS Empress of Ireland (maiden voyage 29 June 1906) that sank in 1914.

[hpidaves]

My math was off -- 1931, not 1932.

[hpidaves]

Still not sure about the PRINCESS PLATE, though. Could be a mistake.

[Traintime]

No, that's right....Trev. has a whole area in Contributor's Notes for Mappin. Princess might be in there, maybe one of the ads mentions it. Small "k" gothic/olde English is right. [There was an earlier Empress of Britain too.] It is possible that wares were simply marked without regard to the specific sister in order to hold general supplies in port to be used as needed. It would cut the costs down and allow useage of new items to continue if any ship actually sank, which wasn't uncommon then. If the name of an ill fated liner were in place, they'd have to dump it all...Italian Lines may have made this mistake later on certain items showing both Andrea Doria and Christoph. Colombo. The crown is most likely that of Victoria as it was when the ships were first commissioned. There would be no need to alter it afterwards as she was no longer breathing fresh aire.