Help with possible provincial table forks

[rat-tail]

Hi to the experts. Would appreciate any help identifying city and or silversmith who made this set of heavy fiddle pattern large table forks. The marks would appear to be an incuse mark - from one side it could be a thistle, from the other an eagle, and then two sets of two marks, a vase (which brings Dundee to mind) and a spike or fleur de lis, struck twice. they are monogrammed on the reverse with a head of a lion, which I have photographed in case (unlikely) it says anything.
My first thought is that they were perhaps just superb quality silver plate, but the forks certainly feel like silver, have the fine scratches and nicks that one sees on old silver and there's no sign of any plate wear around monograms or at the rear of the tines etc. The marks are also placed subtly differently to suggest they were hand struck - on one it has been overstruck. Some of the second set of vase marks are at a slight angle, some slightly higher or lower. The gaps between the first set and the "thistle" vary slightly. I have taken a picture of the fork with the clearest marks. Any thoughts appreciated. This is part of a set of 14. - Many thanks Frank

[dognose]

Hi Frank,

I agree that the origin of your forks is likely to be Scottish, or at least by a silversmith with Scottish origins. They may possibly be tinker's marks, itinerant silversmiths who wandered Scotland from town to town, of whom there are thought to have been many.

One thing you can be reasonably sure about, is that these forks are almost certainly not continental, the shoulders on European fiddle pattern flatware are soft, unlike their British counterparts which are always sharp like your examples.

Regards Trev.

[dognose]

A couple of examples of hard and soft shoulders for comprasion:



Above: British
Below: German

Trev.

[rat-tail]

Hi Trev - Thanks very much for your thoughts - always appreciated - and the German British comparison. I feel if only the single mark were clearer it would help, but who knows, one day may stumble across a known match. - regards Frank