Danish 18century spoons

[Hose_dk]

We all like a good history. And I have one. I have visited a shop where they bye silver for melting. They know a little bit about the art of collecting silver — so they take pieces and sell them second hand. Like these 5 spoons — sold to me as 5 spoons early 1800. (i.e. 1820/1830).

Danish standard is 4 marks but that was only taken seriously in Copenhagen and in 2 or 3 larger towns in Denmark. These spoons are from Stubbekøbing. Now this guy think that he produced good silver — and royalty, nobility and leading people in society - they buy their silver in Copenhagen to get the best of the best. People are common and ignorant so they belief that nobility know what is good. So silver marked with 4 marks must be of a better quality.

Now this master in Stubbekøbing — he is 1 master of only 7 silversmiths in a period of 200 years. These 7 silversmiths are known by name but marks are only identified for 3 of them. The 4 — nobody knows how their mark looked like.

These spoons are by Willads Nielsen Svingelberg. Established approx. 1748 he died 1785. He would like to stress that his silver was of a quality — good as in Copenhagen. Therefore he marked every spoon with 3 identical marks. 15 marks at 5 spoons — so they can be identified without any doubt.

More to come…
Hope you like stories because knowledge is limited.

Normally we are pleased. We have identified maker so the anonymos silver har gained life. To be continued
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[Hose_dk]

We are pleased when we are able to identify even the slightest bit of information. The spoons themselves carried no information (in the sale proces) but can we start digging info?

In 1672 there lived 511 inhabitants in Stubbekøbing times were rough and people poor so the number decreased so in 1801 only 467 people lived in the town. I know that the buyer could be from out of town it could be a wealthy peasant or a poor nobleman. If we assume that the spoons were bought by a local — and that is very likely we also know that only a very limited number of people would have had resources necessary for making the purchase. We don’t know how many spoons that there originally was. But we know for a fact that at least 5 spoons were bought at the same time. Fortunately the spoons contain owners initials.


JTS or could it be JFS we know that reading and writing was not common in those days. Or at least people were not that skilled.
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[Hose_dk]

Research has led to 2 possible candidates. Oh I know that this is wild guessing — but again sometimes we must also belief in what we find. And no harm done, but a good story told.

Jørgen Scheel merchant, towns secretary and city official now merchant is correct but the next 2 titles are not the correct titles in Danish he was byfoged, byskriver and købmand. I 1766 he buys a castle Tvedegaard from the king (smaller castle). With the castle was a number of farms industry etc etc. His household was of 72 people. If Jørgen Scheel is the owner The initials should be read JTS for Jørgen Scheel “master of”/”owner of” Tvedegaard.

Another possible candidate for the ownership is Joachim Fredich Severin he is a priest and in 1760 he is married. The spoons could then be a wedding gift from the master of the household — Jørgen Scheel and his wife Caroline Staal
At this document from the church archives Jørgen Scheel and his wife Caroline Staal both signs to permit Joachim Frederich Severin to get married.

It is odd that both wife and husband sign. Jørgen Scheels signature is all required. As he is the kings representative and owner of half the island. However the wife signature is there as well. She came from a wealthy family — and I am sure that the couple brought glory to the wedding. But still as a woman she had no legal authority.
The spoons might be a wedding gift and in that case originally there might have been 6.

So I might have a set of 6 spoons — one missing.

The paper from the church archives.



The document is in Danish - sorry.
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[Hose_dk]

By this I close my story of the spoons. I any case they are old. Some is facts and some is speculation.
I can seperate facts from speculation - but speculations becomes fun. And as already no harm done in speculating.
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[dognose]

Hi Hose_dk.

It's a great story, surely with more research into the style of engraving you could determine whether the middle initial is a "T" or an "F".
How many hours of research did it take to get this far?

Trev.
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[Hose_dk]

Hi
It is a T. If you just look at the letter. The difference between a T and an F is the "middle swing" and it is not there on any of the spoons.
On the other hand - at one of the spoons he has started to make an S when he should make the middle letter - then he has seen his mistake and changed.
The problem with T is that if Jørgen Scheel was the owner I would expect JST - placing the location as the last letter. But it is in the middle - and that should say that I have no match. Or if placed in the middle it should be larger than the 2 other letters.

The research was not done by me alone. I presented the spoons at a Swedish site and a man suggested (at another) Swedish site that people in need of a challenge could try this. 2-3 hours later on that Sunday afternoon we had this result. In fact it was quiet easy - but these Swedish guys - they new what they were doing.

We also had the benefit of a short period of (possible) manufacture and a very limited population.

Need I say that the seller was not pleased when I visited his shop again - and told him about the research.

I have also contacted the local museum. One of their men found that the story was fine so he would try to investigate - but so far I have not heard from him.

I also have a few other items coming from similar small towns. One of these is 6 wedding spoons from 1822. Engraved with double initials man and wife and year 1822. It should be fairly easy to find them.
But I have so little time.
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