Unknown Maker/Retailer 'WN'

[dognose]

Hi,

Any thoughts on the maker/retailer of this teaspoon would be appreciated.

The spoon is quite small at 4 1/4" (10.7cm) with a slighty larger bowl than normal. It has the incuse Duty mark and London date letter for 1785.

There appears to be no 'WN' recorded by Grimwade at this period and it does appear to be an overstamp, but by whom? The mark closely resembles that of William Nickolds (Grimwade 3242), but would he overstamp a spoon that was at least 42 years old (Nickolds entered in 1827), unlikely. The only other candidate, if he had an unregistered mark, would be William Nixon (Grimwade 3241) who entered his mark in 1817, again this would be very late for an overstamp and as Nixon was a specialised spoonmaker I doubt he would want to be associated with very provincial looking spoon.






Any thoughts?

Trev.
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[MCB]

Hello Trev,
Like you it is hard for me to see why the two London smiths you mention should overstamp an ordinary and elderly spoon so many years after its apparent assay date.
The punch itself doesn't look to me the best quality and its likely whoever's it was wasn't a big producer.
If the maker's punch was used in 1785 we'd be looking for a London smith listed from perhaps 1750. Grimwade mentions none in his various lists as far as I can see. The only WN I can come up with is William Norman who Jackson's lists as first mentioned in 1771 but gives no other detail. It may be assumed I think that Norman wasn't a producer on a large scale so he might just be a candidate but we have no evidence of what punch he used.
Sorry to say it rather seems you've an item either overstamped or made by someone unidentifiable.
Regards,
Mike
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[dognose]

Hi Mike,

Many thanks for the imput, William Norman sounds like a possibility.

What page in Jackson's did you find that info? I'm struggling to find it.

Regards Trev.
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[admin]

Believe it's an overstrike, you can see the serif top of a ghost letter in the crossbar of the N.

Tom
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[MCB]

Hello Trev,

Jackson's page 254 in the list of London makers and shown as first mentioned 1771.

Regards,
Mike
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[dognose]

Thanks Mike, a trip to the opticians is definitely on the cards for me!

Trev.
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[MCB]

Hello Trev,
Your eyes and mine both!
Thoughts have struck me that a Mr WN had the spoon after the original owner and may have managed to make a punch of his own initials overstriking the silversmith's mark to identify his ownership of his household tableware. The other possibility is the involvement of a tinker repairing this spoon.
I don't know how difficult cutting a punch might be but the one here doesn't look as though it's professionally made. Mr WN may not have thought overstriking the original maker's mark of any significance and surely wouldn't have supposed his efforts would be discussed years later.
Perhaps we shouldn't be looking for a silversmith with initials WN at all?
Regards,
Mike
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