Postby rat-tail » Thu Sep 01, 2011 6:57 pm
Hi - Was trawling through the forum listings tonight and spotted this fascinating spoon.
Was wondering if this could not be the rose (crown rubbed or missing) of Norwich
Also searched every W with a co-joined initial in my ancient copy of Jacksons (itself nearly an antique) and the only mark I could come up with that bore a resemblance was of William Rawnson of York, on a 1592 mark noted on a communion cup. But while both marks have some wear not totally convinced. Also the town mark of York is essentially asymetrical and I am not sure whether they had such things as marrow spoons at this date - although that could be a later conversion.
But the one thing the search did show that makers marks with co-joined letters are invariably early and often pre the Britannia period.
But am not an expert in these things - here in SA we never see spoons of this vintage so have never handled one. We get excited by George I and George II pieces. But the real experts are out there so thought I might bump this up to the top of the list - and say great looking spoon.
Regards Frank
PS Looks like there might be the trace of a mark in the bowl near the stem (possibly the hind legs of a lion passant or top of a crown) but might be imagining it.