unknown partnership

[wev]

Late Hanoverian (c 1770) tablespoon, 9.25" with a typical long elliptical bowl and a slashed long spade drop. Marked twice:



Any thoughts?

[dognose]

Hi Wev,

For what it's worth, that backward leaning ampersand is to be found on occasion on Scottish provincial silver and Indian colonial silver, especially when the smith was of Scottish extraction. I've no idea if any early American examples of such marking have ever been traced to Scottish migrants.

Considering a possible Scottish connection, might Canada be the origin of your spoon?

Trev.

[wev]

As you say, the ampersand is distinctive, so I went through all my marks looking for a similar form. I found nine, all from Connecticut and most from New Haven. Looking then at likely makers of appropriate period and surname, I have:
Elisha Elderkin (New Haven)
Alfred Elderkin (Windham)
David Ellsworth (Windsor)
Jacob Jennings, sr (Norwalk)
Miles Johnson (Wallingford)

Only Alfred is known to have had a partner, John Staniford, c 1790.

I'm not sure this gets me anywhere and this is, of course, a restrictive survey given the nature of my project, but it may lead somewhere someday. Or not.