Dutch (?) export spoon with unknown hallmark

[Couperus]

This spoon has two hallmarks. One appears to be the Dutch export mark of a lion with an intruding key. The other mark appears to be HH in a square with a crown. The picture was the best I could get. The crown has more points than I've seen on other crown-type hallmarks - looks more like the head of a thistle. I've searched the forum and a couple of other places to no avail. Here are the images. First time poster, so I hope this works.

X
X

thank You

[silverport]

»HH« isn't crowned!

Hello »Couperus«

Welcome to the Forum.

The »HH« mark isn't crowned!

If you observe very well the maker's mark, you would see that the 'crown' isn't part of the maker's mark, but by incidence part of the surface.

»HH« is the maker's mark of the still existing »Schoonhovensche Zilverfabriek H. Hooijkaas bv« - Vrouwenmantel 5 - 2871 NJ Schoonhoven, Nederland

Please read this topic:

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=20451

In the future placed questions, please don't add images in the dimension of post stamps!

If you now would read some other topics, you would get a feeling of need.

Thank you in advance foor yours comprehension and future cooperation!

Kind regards silverport

[Couperus]

Thank you! My eye isn't very trained yet, but now that you point out that the HH isn't crowned - it seems obvious. Sorry about the picture size - I was worried they would be too huge, so I erred in the opposite direction.

[zilverik]

Hi couperus,

The intruding key stands for a Dutch taxmark. When a new/unused silver object was exported between 1853 and 1953 there was a refund for "waarborgbelasting". It started with a refund to the makers, later the exporters joined the refund. This key is found often on silver objects who have been in the Dutch East and West Indie. Sometimes there are two keys. That is the case when an object was finaly not exported (and it had already a key) or when the object returned to the Netherlands and the owner had to pay tax. There are even examples with three keys.

Regards,

Zilverik