Silver Spoon Antiques

From L to R - Coffee Spoons, Teaspoons, Dessert Spoons, Table Spoons (with a Basting Spoon above) Apparently this is a very popular question on google! Now most people are probably looking for a cooking measurement (its volume in cooking is 4.93ml btw), but it is also a question that is often raised in describing a spoon...what is a teaspoon? A dessert spoon? A coffee spoon? A table spoon? The answer to this is often different at different points of history, but below is a rough guide for the Georgian and Victorian periods. Coffee Spoon These are a more modern spoon, mainly dating from 1890 onwards. They are smaller than teaspoons, usually between 9cm (3.5in) and 11cm (4.3in). Teaspoon  These come in a range of sizes...the smallest around 12cm (4.7in) long and the longest approximately 14cm (5.5in). Dessert Spoon Our modern day Tablespoons are really more traditional dessert spoon size. They range in size from around 17cm (6.7in) to 18...

Antique Irish Bright-Cut Sterling Silver Bright-cut engraving hit England in about 1780 and was in fashion for about 30 years.  It can be readily found on antique Georgian sterling silver spoons and sugar tongs of that time. Bright-cut decoration is when the pattern is faceted out of the silver so as to reflect light at different angles. Personally, bright-cut designs are one of our favourites, as there is such variety of patterns and they are very pretty to look at.  Ireland generally followed the English trends and Bright-cut was no exception. As they often did though, the Irish put their own national spin. There are four main patterns that you will find on Irish Bright-cut silver of the time; Star Pattern, Flower Pattern, Bow Pattern and Prince of Wales Plumes Pattern.  Examples of Irish Star Pattern on teaspoons Star Pattern This is the most common and the most recognisable Irish pattern. It is seen in a number of forms, but the most readily found is th...

Antique Scottish Provincial silver is one of the most interesting and confusing areas of silver collecting. There were numerous towns that were producing silver in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. There were no regulations governing these towns, so each town (or silversmith) came up with their own marks. These were often related to town symbols or coat of arms. It is often the question of rarity that wildly affects the value for these pieces of silver. Below is a table of suggested rarity: Scarce Rare Very Rare Aberdeen Arbroath Cupar Dumfries Ballater Ellon Dundee Banff Fochabers Glasgow (pre-Assay office) Canongate Forres Inverness Elgin Leith Perth Greenock Nairn Iona Peterhead Montrose St. Andrews Paisley Stonehaven Tain Wick This list is published by antiquesilverspoons.co.uk and is based on the research of Richard Turner (who's book, A Directory of Scottish Provincial Silversmiths and Their Ma...

Benjamin Tait was based in Dublin. He produced quite a large amount of silversmith in his relatively short career. He worked from around 1784 to 1791. His workshop was near Bride Street, in the inner city of of Dublin. His most common makers marks have a serrated edge and are clearly recognisable. Example of Benjamin Tait's maker mark He made a number of different pieces, but appears to have specialised in flatware. Below are four examples of his bright-cut pattern sugar tongs. His tongs are often much smaller than other Irish examples, the first three displayed measure between 13.5-14.5cm. The fourth pair are of a more common Irish size and measure just under 17cm. Bright-cut Sugar Tongs with rounded shell bowls by Tait Bright-cut Sugar Tongs with concave design Bright-cut Sugar Tongs with flower pattern Large pair of Sugar Tongs by Tait, in a much more typically Irish size and style

A lovely two-handled cup by Bassé (Source: Bonhams Australia) Not one of the big names of Adelaide silversmithing, I think Frederick Bassé is underrated! His larger pieces show an elegant simplicity. Both a Jeweller and a Silversmith, Bassé produced pieces from the early 1880s until his death in 1913. His firm continued under his widow, trading as F. Bassé and Co until around 1923. An example of Bassé's hallmarks A plain but heavy silver box by Bassé

A nice silver spoon turned up recently on a trip to regional NSW.  The dealer wasn't sure if it was silver, indeed the hallmarks were so small, I couldn't decipher them either.  But what did stand out was the impressive Celtic design to the spoon and the marks I could read that said 'AR' and 'IONA'.  I remembered reading a little somewhere about a silversmith, Alexander Richie, working on the Scottish island.  So I purchased the spoon (along with a few other pieces of silver) for a good price. A Jam Spoon by Alexander Richie of Iona, Scotland It turned out this spoon was indeed silver and had been hallmarked in Glasgow in 1931. Hallmarks and Engraving of Richie Spoon Alexander Richie, along with his wife, Euphemia, began making silverware and jewellery (as well as wood and other metal work) at the end of the nineteenth century.  He sent items from Iona to both Glasgow and Chester to be hallmarked.  Most of his pieces have the Celtic or Viking i...

Silver from the Colonies... The British Empire sprung from overseas possessions and trading posts set-up by England from the end of the 16th century.  Although it was in the early 20th century that it was at its peak, it began being referred to as the British Empire in the nineteenth century.   A map showing the British Empire in 1886 Although the bulk of sterling silver items were made in the United Kingdom and exported to the colonies, wherever there were significant populations, gold and silversmiths were there working.  Items produced by these local silversmiths are known as 'British Colonial Silver'.   The most common (and most researched) places that British colonial silver will turn up from are India, Canada, South Africa and Australia.  Each of these have some great reference books available (let me know if you are interested in any of these, as I often have copies for sale).   An impressive piece made by Wendt, Australia (...

A question often asked is ' How much is this item worth? ' or ' What value would you put on this piece?'  Indeed the climaxes on Antiques Roadshow are when values are announced, either elating the owner with a high valuer or disappointing others with a low one.  The hard thing when it comes to valuing an item is there is actually a number of values a single item can have.  Here is a list of some different types of values, from lowest to highest: Wholesale - This is the price a dealer would pay.  This value has to include room for a decent mark-up for the dealer, often 100% (this covers other overheads as well as some profit) Auction - Auctions are where the dealers and customers meet, often cheaper than retail, there is always the exception when two bidders decide they both want an item! Retail - often at least triple the wholesale price, this is because only does a dealer need to make a living, they also need to pay for other costs such as utilities, insuran...

The most desired of the Caddy Spoons! Caddy spoons, originally used for scooping tea out of Tea Caddies, are a popular collecting area in silver.  (For an earlier post about caddy spoons, click here - Caddy Spoons ).  Among the rarest and most collectable of the caddy spoons is a stunning one called the Eagle's Wing Caddy Spoon.  The spoon was first made in Birmingham by Joseph Willmore and Matthew Linwood around 1815-40.  It was produced again by George Unite around 1865.  It has also been reproduced a number of times since then in the twentieth century. This is one of the originals, made by Joseph Willmore. This was sold by Bonhams in 2005 for £2,400!  What do you think?  Is it worth all the fuss?

A couple years ago, I posted about Adelaide's most prolific silversmith, J.M Wendt .  In that post, I showed pictures of two of his serviette rings.  Following I've posted a number of further examples.  As you can, he produced a variety of different types and used a number of different maker's marks.  These all date from the 1880s-1890s. A lovely example of the Aesthetic movement. Circe 1880 One modelled on a belt bucket.  These are among the most collectable Bright-cut engraving of leaves on this one.  And note this is while he had shops in Adelaide and Broken Hill.  c.1890 An bright-cut pattern. Plain serviette rings, but what great initialling! Another example showing influence from the Aesthetic Movement.

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As I've mentioned before  Australian silver is a lot scarcer than its English and European counterparts. Although produced from the early 1800's, most Australian silver is to be found from the 1880's onwards.  Often Australian silver will be found stamped 'Stg Silver' or similar (unlike English silver which has had a legal system for hallmarks for hundreds of years).   Henry Young is one of my favourite Australian silversmiths.  I'm always keeping an eye out for pieces of his to buy for my own collection (let me know if you have any to sell!).  He had a unique style of engraving his wares, from serviette rings through to large trophies. A picture of Henry Young's shop Thomas Young, the father of Henry Young, founded his business in 1854 and by 1865 was trading as Thomas Young and Son at 47 Stephen Street, Melbourne. Henry Young and Co. was established by 1882 at 53 Collins Street East, and by June 1883 had moved to new premises at 49-51 Coll...

Did you know that there have been women silversmiths for hundreds of years?   Women have been noted as silversmiths for hundreds of years.  Widows would often continue on the business of their husbands (often placing their maker's mark in a lozenge) and daughters would enter business partnerships with relatives also in the trade.  Dorothy Langlands was a widow who continued business for 10 years after her husbands death.   For sixty years the Langlands family were the largest manufacturers of silverware in Newcastle, England.   Dorothy Langlands  was the wife of John Langlands II and she took over her husband's business in 1804 when he died. She retired in 1814 and died in 1845.  This means we can date all silver marked with her maker's mark (D.L) to 1804-1814.  This is helpful because a lot of smaller silver items would not have been stamped with the date letter.   Below are two examples of her work.  A nice pair of bright-cu...

Can you tell me what this is and what it was used for?   Irish Marrow Scoop, John Shields, Dublin It’s known as a marrow scoop .   Back in eighteenth century (the earliest example dates from just before then in 1690), the marrow (which is the stuff inside bones) was considered a delicacy.   So they made special spoons just to get at the stuff.  Very popular in the 1700s, they became scarcer in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.   Quite large, often around 25cm long, some would have a spoon on one end and the scoop on the other, others, such as this example, had two different sized scoops.   Keep an eye out for them, especially rare Scottish and Irish examples.  

Australian silver is a lot rarer than its English counterparts. Although produced from the early 1800's, most Australian silver is to be found from the 1880's onwards.  There was no standardised system of hallmarking, but pseudo British marks were often used.  One of the most prolific Australian silversmiths of the second half of the nineteenth century was South Australian, JM Wendt.   Example One - Wendt Serviette Ring circa 1890 Joachim Matthias Wendt (1830-1917), silversmith, was born on 26 June 1830 in Holstein, Denmark (now part of modern day Germany). He was apprenticed to a watchmaker and learned the silversmith's craft. He migrated to Adelaide in 1854 where he set up as J. M. Wendt, watchmaker and jeweller. The success of his business allowed him to move into a new shop in Rundle Street. In 1860s and 1870s, Wendt won numerous awards for his work, including first prizes in the Dunedin Exhibition, New Zealand (1864 and 1865) and the Paris Universal Exh...

Some of the purchases from today's auction Today was spent hunting for bargains at an auction in New Zealand. It seems there were plenty of good buys in the royal doulton items, but the sterling silver this time around was generally too high for a dealer.  Luckily I'm a collector too so still managed to pick up a few items. The highlights include an Omar Ramsden ladle and a pair of Scottish Provincial (probably Perth) sugar tongs. Stay tuned for some further descriptions and info. :-) Scottish Provincial Sugar Tongs Omar Ramsden Ladle

It is always worth having a look at each spoon in a boxed set...especially if they don't quite match. Here we have a boxed 'set' of golf club teaspoons and a pair of sugar tongs. Silver plated and priced at $45. What would you think? I picked up each one and each was marker as APEX silverplate. Except the last one! It was hallmarked as Australian Sterling Silver, made by Fairfax and Roberts. Not the 'Stg' for sterling as the third mark. I asked the dealer his best price for the set...$30. A nice 1920's-30's Australian sterling silver teaspoon. In itself well worth a price of $30.

Is it fake??? Antique silver has been forged and faked for a number of years, whether to dodge duty in the early nineteenth century or to mislead an antique collecting public from the 1890's. But this spoon can technically also be called a fake. These spoons are often called Berry Spoons, and have different fruits embossed into the bowls. However for many spoons this embossing was done 50 years after they were made, as Berry Spoons became popular in early Victorian times. So any Berry Spoon with hallmarks for the late 1700's actually began life as a normal tablespoon (or in rarer cases, such as the spoon here, as teaspoons). So although it appears to be a Georgian Berry Spoon, it has been modified into that at a later date. Is it a fake? What do you think????

This lovely pair of sugar tongs was my first ever silver purchase!  I found them at the Woollahra Antiques Centre, back when I was in high school.  When I saw them I loved both the lions paws and the little cherubs. The hallmarks on these tongs are from Germany after 1888.  The 800 is the silver purity, the crescent moon  and crown are the national mark for Germany. As there is no makers mark, I haven't been able to work out who made them, but they were probably made in the 1930's.   From these tongs, I managed to dig around the family home and find another piece, which was an English Sterling bookmark that belonged to my great-grandfather! These two were the beginning of what I'm sure will be a lifetime of collecting!

With some ancestry in the Channel Islands, I was excited to find out they had their own silversmiths, marking their wares with unique marks.   This spoon was made by the last of the Jersey Silversmiths to make spoons.  It was made by Jean Le Gallais, around 1850.  As you can see the hallmarks don't follow the standard English hallmarking system.  In this case there is the makers mark, (JLG), a crown and the letter J (for Jersey).   Another really cool thing about Channel Islands spoons is their use of the double drop (I've also seen it called a skeleton drop) heel to join the stem to the bowl of the spoon.  Although this can be found in early English spoons, it died out reasonably quickly there.  In the Jersey however, the silversmiths continued to use this style up through the nineteenth century.  It was hard to take a photograph of, but you can see it in the photo, the little pitchfork shape.