unknown mark on a spoon

[pequena.dragonfly]

Hello,

please help me to identify the marks on this spoon:

https://picasaweb.google.com/1071057774 ... directlink

The lengh is aprox. 14 cm

Thanks

pd

[2209patrick]

Hello.

The middle picture shows an Austrian - Hungarian import mark.
http://www.925-1000.com/Faustria_02.html

Pat.

[Smokanabeach]

Hi Pequena!

As said by Patrick this hallmark is an Austrian-hungarian one but... not an import mark (the import hallmark has a little "A" in place of what looks like a "8"), only a local hallmark for taxes.

See bellow:



Regards

Source: "TARDY - Poinçons d'argent - 22ème édition"

[blakstone]

No, this is definitely an Austrian import mark. It was introduced by act of 30 May 1868, and was struck on imported silver wares of no less than .750 fineness. The mark is a conjoined “AV” (“AU”) for “Ausländische” (“Foreign”).

From 1 Apr 1872, however, it (and all other Austro-Hungarian marks) were to include within it a letter code indicating the particlar importing assay office: “A” for Vienna, “B” (not “8”) for Linz (as shown in the page from Tardy), and (as in the middle photo in question) “C” for Prague. This particular import mark was replaced by a different design in 1901.

So the most I can say definitively about this spoon is that it was imported into Prague sometime in the last quarter of the 19th century. I can add that these ivory-handled, leaf-bowled spoons are usually of German origin, and that I've seen them called both sugar spoons and caddy spoons.

Tardy is an invaluable reference and certainly the one most people start out with, myself included. But is has its limitations, not the least of which is a jumbled arrangement and spotty explantory text. The information on Austro-Hungarian marks is particularly deficient, being riddled with typographical errors and inaccuracies.

[pequena.dragonfly]

thanks a lot to all of you !!!
Concidering all your inputs I looked at the mark again.
On the left side there is a small c, then comes the big A and then is a kind of t
best regards
pd