www.925-1000.com

Hi guys,
I don't know if anyone can help; have a very large silver spoon, only marks on it are SS. I acid tested it today and it tested positive for silver. I can't find any other marks. Seems very well made. Is it a holiday trinket or could it have some age to it. Weight 70.5g. Length 23cm. Bowl approx 8.5cm.




Any help appreciated.
Cheers
Gary

No silver marks, not silver. If acid test is rather unreliable. This statement has been made here many times. However, if the acid test indicates silver and you have no hallmarks, it is most likely silver plated, e.g EPNS.

Äh! I made a typo, sorry. It should read: "The acid test is rather unreliable."

No silver marks, not silver is Qtr.S opinion. I do not share his opinion, I have seen many pieces with no or maker's mark only, made out of silver. For example American coin silver, Chinese (export) silver, also 18th century Dutch guild silver of little weight, Dutch provincial Frisian silver below first standard, pre 1806, maker's mark only. British provencial silver seen with maker' mark only.
I agree acid test are unreliable and I suggest to have your spoon propely tested by xrf spectrometer.

Peter.

Thanks guys; when I acid tested it, I made quite a deep scratch.
It looks very well made. I see it was put in the Scandinavian Section. I was hoping someone may say 'ah, I recognise that'; fingers crossed.
Gary

Dear Peter,
With due respect. This topic has been discussed before. In general you are right if we are talking about silver worldwide. Unmarked legal silver exists but is uncommon. This spoon is, however, most likely European made. In Europe there are very little unmarked silver produced. What unmarked silver you can find is very old objects, private orders (e.g. court suppliers), folk jewellery, medical instruments and some other rather rare objects and of course coins. There is hardly any reason why any maker would not mark his work unless it is made in illegal below standard fineness. He might get caught! Makers are honest and proud people. They like to "advertise: I made this, I'm a good skilled goldsmith" by marking the object they made. Anyway, the probability that this spoon is silver is close to nil. The probability it being plated is 99%.

@populous38

Have the spoon tested the way Peter suggested but not with acid and you will know is it silver or not. Secondly, all Scandinavian countries have very strict legislation on how to mark silver, forget Scandinavia.

The handle should be hollow, and there should be a tiny hole in the handle, my best guess would be Thailand, I have owned a few similar spoons and one was downright gigantic :::

The "SS" should stand for "Siam Silver" which is often marked on spoons from the Kingdom Of Siam which was the name of the country before Thailand ::

Silver rice serving spoon.
Would not rule out Yogya silver. Intials SS (De Luxe) could be for Sastro Sarjono, still active in 2009 according :

https://www.925-1000.com/a_yogya.html
http://www.djokja.nl/werkplaatsen.html


Peter.

Guys, this is really helpful
the handle is hollow and does in fact have a hole at the end

Pattern on hadle looks like Indian or Siamese. I came across spoons from the Burma with same marking.

cheers, appreciated.
gary

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I have this exact same spoon from friend of mine who passed given as a gift in sri lanka.

It is hallmarked with a 4SS