Large spoon stew

[fluti]

Hello !
Here is a spoon to eat stew.
Unfortunately I don't recognize the hallmarks.
Can someone help me ?
Thank you !

[blakstone]

I recognize the mark with the three "P"s surmounted by a crowned "T" as the Jurande/warden's mark of Poitiers, the "T" bring the date letter. Consistent with this is the partially-struck "G" - the Charge mark of the Poitiers mint - and the "MG" + shell maker's mark, identified as that registered in Poitiers in 1734 by Marie Marguerite Grivet, widow of Poitiers silversmith Louis Delaunay. (See here: Les poinçons des veuves d’orfèvres sous l’Ancien Régime français)

Unfortunately, I do not have access to Élie Pailloux's Orfèvres et Poinçons des XVIIe, XVIIIe et XIXe Siècles, Poitou, Angoumois, Aunis, Saintonge, La Rochelle (1962), the standard reference for Poitiers silver, which might identify the date letter and the décharge mark, and also provide additional information on the maker.

[fluti]

Oh thank you !
i had already seen Les poinçons des veuves d’orfèvres sous l’Ancien Régime français but not enough. :D

So i had to dig the Élie Pailloux's Orfèvres et Poinçons book to identify the date letter and décharge mark, ok!

And the two others marks ? Are they here to identify the metal ?

[fluti]

Ok nevermind, this is the partially-struck "G" for Poitier :


So the last one, look-like a wolf head or boar head is the décharge mark ?

[blakstone]

That's correct; it would have been the last mark placed. The charge and décharge marks were struck by the tax collector; the first on the unfinished piece when the tax was paid, and the latter on the finished piece and any difference in the tax, based on the finished weight, was paid (or refunded). These marks changed with the tenure of each fermier général, who was essentially an out-sourced tax collector who collected duties on behalf of the crown under a renewable six-year contract.

The Jurande letter, which changed annually, was struck by the guild warden who tested the piece to make sure it was of legal fineness, so identifying that will give you the year. But it is important to confirm that the charge and décharge marks belong to the fermier général of the appropriate time and place. Pailloux's book should have this information.