Help with Nurnberg Spoon

[dognose]

Hi,

Can someone help out with any details on this Nurnberg spoon?





The spoon is 8 1/2" (21.5 cm) in length. The maker's mark is somewhat worn, but appears to be 'MERKLEIN', then '13' and followed by 'NURNBERG'

Any information on the maker, working dates and dating of the spoon would be much appreciated.

Trev.

[silverport]

A. Merklein, Kaiserstr. 30, Nürnberg (in 1903 a retailer only).

Hello

Sorry, I haven't elder Address Guides - in a guide of 1903 is mentioned as retailer:

A. Merklein, Kaiserstr. 30, Nürnberg

The spoon is marked with »13« Loth = before 1888; and the fiddle style pattern is also much earlier as that time period. If it is a soup spoon, I guess the weight seems to be in this case about 45 to 50 gram only.

The stylistic of the "drop" = engraved only, and the finial of the stem = in shape of a 'dognose' let me guess, that the spoon is made in third quarter of XIX century.

That was already the time span of availability for retailer of factory made cutlery.

Maybe was the predecessor of A. Merklein, »MERKLEIN«, a professional silversmith? Then it could be, that this spoon was hand beaten by him too.

Kind regards silverport

[dognose]

Hi Silverport,

Many thanks for your informative reply. It's been most helpful.

Regards Trev.

[Bahner]

Hello, Joseph Sigmund Merklein started working in Nuremberg in 1844 and opened up his own workshop on October 18th, 1848. He died in 1883 and the shop was run by his widow until in 1890 it was taken over by J.S. Merklein's tenth (!) child August. In 1935 August' son Alfred took over. Alfred Merklein died in 1960 and in turn his son Wolfgang took over. In 1969 the family celebrated the 125th anniversary. Don't know what happend after that. I agree with Silverport on the dating of the spoon. Best wishes, Bahner

[dognose]

Hi Bahner,

Thank you for the further details of the Merklein family and their long established business.

Regards Trev.

[silverly]

Here's an 1870 (1869) Nurnberg alamanac listing found on google books for a Merklein that you may have already come across: http://books.google.com/books?id=omhBAA ... &q&f=false