Hamburg Baster

[dognose]

Hi,

Can anyone tell me any information on this Hamburg basting spoon.
It is 12" (30cm.) in length. Does the single "H" represent the maker? And can the age be determined from the City mark?
Any help would be appreciated.



Regards Trev.

[blakstone]

The age can be narrowed by the city mark; the letter "N" indicated guild warden Johann Daniell Maul, who served from July 1790 to November 1811. "H" is the maker, Christopher Bernhard Hues, master 1802 (though he was clearly working earlier than that in his father Johann's workshop, where he apprenticed 1776-1782). There is no record of his death, but he was still listed in 1840.

[dognose]

Hi Blakstone,

Many thanks for this excellent information. Was it usual for Hamburg makers to mark their wares with just a single letter?

Regards Trev.

[blakstone]

I wouldn't say it was common, but it was not without precedent. There was no mandated form, but 19th century marks were usually one or more initials, the full last name, or some combination of both (e.g. first inital and last name).

[dognose]

Hi Blakstone,

Thanks again for the great information.

Regards Trev.

[admin]

the letter "N" indicated guild warden Johann Daniell Maul

Hi Blakstone,
Not sure if it is a typo or if I am reading the mark wrong, but isn't it an "R".
If so does it still apply to Maul or another warden?

Also, from the reading the accrued posts on Hamburg, I've noticed a lot of overlap in the differing warden's years. Can you tell us, on average, how many were in office at a time.

Thanks for the continuing education,
Tom

[blakstone]

Hmmm . . it sure looked like an "N" on my laptop at home, but here at work on a larger monitor it looks like "R". N was definitely Maull; I'll check "R" (which would be a different assayer) when I get home. It would make sense; 1811 seemed just a tad early for the style of spoon.

Beginning in 1688 (if I remember correctly) there were four assayers/wardens at the Hamburg guild working simultaneously, who were assigned letters A, B, C, and D. When one assayer died or retired, his replacement then used the next letter in the sequence. However, since the terms were not fixed, one assayer might use his letter for decades, and another for only a year or two, causing some seemingly out-of-sequence overlapping, particularly when the letter cycle renewed. Thus, by the 19th century, if one looked at the four letters in use at any given time, they would very much appear to have no relation to one another. But from the late 17th century there were always four - and only four - assayers working at any given time in the Hamburg guild.

[blakstone]

Back home on my laptop and now I see why I thought it was an "N". In any event, it makes little difference in the dating; in fact, it narrows it more firmly in the same time frame. "R" was used by assayer Johann Schneider from June 1799 to February 1808. A good example of the overlapping nature of Hamburg letters: one might expect "R", which comes well after "N", to have "outlived" it, but it did not.

[admin]

Thanks, you've brought some order to what seemed a chaotic system.

Tom

[dognose]

Hi Tom and Blakstone,

Tom:- Many thanks for spotting that, I completely missed it!

Blakstone:- Thanks for the correction, it's even better news, as you noted, it tightens up the timeframe.

This is one of a set of six basting spoons, something I've never come across before, they must have been part of a huge service.

Thanks again for your imput.

Regards Trev.