Is this a Hamburg spoon and who is the maker?
Posted: Sun Mar 15, 2020 12:18 pm
I have this rather nice spoon which I think is probably German and possibly Hamburg, but it doesn't have a city mark for confirmation. The clues are as follows, though I may have misinterpreted them entirely:
1) The reverse of the terminal is prick engraved with an early owner, 'Hinrick Mamero 1836' (not shown), so I searched on-line and found a Heinrich Mamero 1831-1892, born in Wilhelmsburg. Of course, this may not be him at all, but it shows the name was used in Germany and in the region of Hamburg.
2) The possible maker seems to read 'Lange' and whilst I couldn't find a silversmith of that name as early as 1836, the forum's encyclopedia for Hamburg shows that one Frederich Johann Heinrich Lange was given a concession in Hamburg for the duration 1848-1865. I wonder then whether my Lange is the same fellow, his father or another family member.
Hopefully someone on the forum is able to dig up more detail for me and, if it is Hamburg, explain why it doesn't have the city mark.
The spoon itself is rather nice, obviously of good quality, with what looks like marriage symbolism engraved to the underside of the bowl (with an abbreviated version to the stem). Perhaps someone is able to give me some background to this sort of engraving, e.g. to confirm or otherwise that this is a marriage spoon, whether this is a common form of engraving, etc.
As always, anyone help is welcome.
Silverk.
1) The reverse of the terminal is prick engraved with an early owner, 'Hinrick Mamero 1836' (not shown), so I searched on-line and found a Heinrich Mamero 1831-1892, born in Wilhelmsburg. Of course, this may not be him at all, but it shows the name was used in Germany and in the region of Hamburg.
2) The possible maker seems to read 'Lange' and whilst I couldn't find a silversmith of that name as early as 1836, the forum's encyclopedia for Hamburg shows that one Frederich Johann Heinrich Lange was given a concession in Hamburg for the duration 1848-1865. I wonder then whether my Lange is the same fellow, his father or another family member.
Hopefully someone on the forum is able to dig up more detail for me and, if it is Hamburg, explain why it doesn't have the city mark.
The spoon itself is rather nice, obviously of good quality, with what looks like marriage symbolism engraved to the underside of the bowl (with an abbreviated version to the stem). Perhaps someone is able to give me some background to this sort of engraving, e.g. to confirm or otherwise that this is a marriage spoon, whether this is a common form of engraving, etc.
As always, anyone help is welcome.
Silverk.