Hi Guys,
Many thanks for your help.
The mark illustrated in Langdon's certainly does bear similarities, but I would say the second and fourth marks were pseudo Duty marks, rather than Lion Passant marks with the third being a pseudo London mark perhaps. Having said that, there was no reason as to why Christian Grothe, if he was the maker of this ladle, should stick to any particular set of marks, it's not as if he had to register them anywhere and as it looks as if his working period was perhaps a long one, then there may have been several changes over the years. The same could aslo apply to the maker's mark, whilst the 'C' looks similar, the 'G' has the addition of a central crossbar that is lacking on my example, with mine also having a far larger central pellet, but there was really very little reason why a replacement punch should be an exact replica of an earlier one.
All in all, I would put Christian Grothe in pole position as things stand at the moment.
Regards Trev.