Finnish spoon

[mk209]

I wonder if anybody could kindly give me some more information about this Finnish spoon I bought. It's my first piece of Finnish silver. It's marked J.L 78 (crown) H3 W




Thanks,

Matt.

[Qrt.S]

It is a rather common Finnish silver spoon with a history. The marks from the left:

1. J.L is the maker's mark for master Jonas Lampén 1861-1888. He was born in 1821 in Lammi/Lampis and died 6.2.1888.
2. 78 is fineness mark in Russian zolotniks meaning 812,5/1000. Finland became The Grand Duchy of Finland, an "autonomic" area that kept its Swedish legislation and silver marking procedure among other "habits". However, some masters changed their way of expressing the fineness in loth (13) to zolotniks, like in this case.
3. The crown is the official assaying mark for gold and silver representing the crown of the duchy. The crown is still in use today.
4. H4 is the year mark for 1865
4 W is the town mark for the town of Viipuri/Viborg on the Carelian isthmus. Before WW II the second biggest town in Finland but for known reasons it was lost to the Soviet Union in 1945.
5. The mark H&C-o on the front side is the owners mark, but unfortunately I have no idea who it is probably a company in Viborg.

The pattern is called "mussla or snäcka" meaning clam and still most popular today.

Now I'm leaving for fishing for a few days...

[mk209]

Thank you kindly for the information. I've also been informed the spoon belonged to Hackman & Company in Vyborg.

[Qrt.S]

Interesting, I have seen this "logo" earlier but not connected it with Hackman. This company is still going strong today. Here something to read
http://www.hackman.fi/english/Inspirati ... kman-story