Apostle Spoon

[Alice925]

I am trying to determine if this apostle spoon could have been made by Nicholas Bartholomew, or not. There is no hallmark on the bowl.

[agphile]

I cannot make out enough of the mark to say anything confident about the maker -ageing eyesight and the deficiencies of a computer screen don't help. However, whoever the maker, the whole spoon seems to be a marriage or even a menage a trois so I haven't spent time trying to compare the mark one by one with all the possibilities.

The bowl shape is wrong as well as lacking a leopard's head mark. It is either a replacement or completely reshaped. The little mark near the finial is presumably the remnant of the date letter. Its placement indicates that the stem was originally a slip top to which the apostle has been grafted at some later date.

Sorry if these are unwelcome comments but I think it better not to be too tactful and risk misleading.

[Alice925]

Thank you for the reply. The bowl is of such a thin gauge that it was somewhat deformed/warped - I had gently re shaped it back to symmetry. The ones I've seen in photos online, their bowls seem thicker - could that be the reason there is no bowl stamp? The spoon weighs around 1.5 ounces and is the size of a serving spoon. It is also vermeil.

I have seen that these were wildly popular among collectors and that even the forgeries are antiques. If course I was hoping that I had one from the fourteenth century!

[AG2012]

Hi,
Silver gauge cannot be the reason for avoiding mark.
The argument by agphile is very sound, he is an expert.
Apostle spoons are being faked in huge quantities, some fakes are dangerous, some easily disclosed.
Regards