Help with forks

[Juls]

I have two very little forks that have GAB N.S. on the back. Does anyone know that maker?

[Matulda]

Probably Swedish. GAB = Guldsmedsaktiebolaget (Goldsmiths inc.) was founded in Stockholm 1867. Now owned by Gense, Eskilstuna, Sweden.

[Juls]

Thanks so much for the inforation, it really helped. They seem pretty old. Any idea what the N.S. stands for?

[Matulda]

Sorry, I thought you knew that since you put the question under "Silver Plate". Internationally it stands for Nickel Silver, but in Sweden we call it "New Silver". Your forks are made from a mixture of copper, zink and nickel, with a thin silver coating.

It's usually hard to date these things since they don't have date marks, and many models have been used for quite a number of years. However, the mark GAB wasn't used from the beginning. The earliest objects from this company are marked GULDSM.AKT.BOL, and in 1874 they changed it to GBL. I'm not quite sure when they changed it to GAB, but it was sometime before 1913, and probably after 1900. I don't have the right book here, but I can check it up.