Pseudo marks on spoon help.......

[mk209]

Came across this spoon for sale back in April and was the winning bidder, however the seller had other ideas unknown to me or any logic and sold the spoon again a few weeks later! It actually sold for less than my winning bid but I didn't find this out until after not receiving the spoon and the lack of communication from the seller made me suspicious, I was even told it had been posted. Feeling rather annoyed I lodged a dispute and after a month later got my money back. Decided to keep an eye out as often things get sold on as people are only interested in profit mostly and surprise it was back up for sale in a different part of the country. It had been well cleaned at this point so I went all out to get it again and was the winning bidder but was bid up more than I had originally paid for it. Finally I have it in my collection!

If anyone can help with the origins of this spoon it'd be great, thanks.




Matt.

[davidross]

One possibly is early to mid-19th century Chinese export.

The Canton maker WE WE WC used London pseudo marks similar to this, along with the pseudo date letter "p." Tu Hopp's marks show the same pseudo London marks and a strikingly similar Georgian bust, but with a capital T.

That said, neither of those makers is a definite match. It appears that here, either the lower case p designates a maker (unknown to me), or it is the same pseudo date letter found in the WE WE WC maker, but in this case with no maker's mark.

I think CES might be a good candidate, but let's wait to see what others have to say.

Regards,
DR

[mk209]

Thanks David I purchased the Catalogue of Chinese Export Silver Makers’ Marks and I'll have a look when I get the download link. It fooled a few sellers as they all though it was a 1791 spoon! It was all wrong for that date and the fiddle is Scottish in shape, it just needed a closer look to see it wasn't what people first thought it was. It sadly has a crack in the stem and would have ended up as scrap so I'm glad I rescued it, I'll try and find somebody to repair it as it's worth keeping.