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If bought at an auction in Midleton, I would think the tongs were included in general contents from a local house as most antique silver in Cork or vicinity is sold at Joseph Woodward & Sons auction house in Cork city. The engraving looks rather basic compared to engraving on tongs from more pro...

Midleton is a small town in Co. Cork about 23 km east of Cork City. So yes, that does make it much more likely the tongs are Irish Provincial from Cork or Cork area (Youghal or Kinsale for example).

I still have no idea who T.G is though and it does look like T.G rather than T.C.

Well, it might be given the style of the engraving and lack of other marks or it might not be given there is no trace of an Irish silversmith using a T.G mark like this. Guild records of Cork goldsmiths were lost or destroyed ages ago and while much work has been done to complete lists of makers usi...

Would be interesting to know where Kinghams obtained the name Thomas Cooksey from. This name does not exist in any Irish silver reference book including the very detailed one composed for the 2005 exhibition 'Cork Silver and Gold Four Centuries of Craftsmanship'. Nor does it appear in either of Doug...

The cut off edges on the maker's mark do look like those on Timothy Conway's TC mark so perhaps T.C is a variation he used but I can't find any silver with it.

Not sure offhand. Never heard of Thomas Cooksey. Timothy Conway (1783-1803) used TC with no dot between the letters and silver I've seen credited to him also had STERLING on it too. Only other TC in my Provincial Irish Silver reference books is a Cork silversmith, Thomas Cumming (1779 or 1789 depend...

James Keating was a well known Dublin spoon maker.

Given the width of this J . K mark, the gaps between the dot and the letters, size of dot and what appears to be remnants of indentations at edges, I think this is a very worn example of James Keating's serrated rectangular maker's mark. It is no. 123 in Bennett's Irish Georgian Silver, page 343 and...

Very welcome. I like a puzzle and John Osborne, Silversmith, who died in 1789, is not mentioned in any book on Irish silver so a puzzle. On the other hand, I can only find one reference to silver by a John Osborne pre 1784 (working start date of Jonas [John] Osborne) and that is a serving spoon date...

Yes, the NLI also has Wilson's 1751-53 Directory but only available in its Manuscripts Reading Room and likely on microfilm. While I am a member, I won't be in there anytime soon.

Seems the early Directories are not accessible online. The 'The Gentleman and Citizen's Almanack (Watson's) 1729 - 1743' directories (not sure what they contain) are only available on microfilm from Dublin City Council Library & Archive, likely the National Library of Ireland too, as are Wilson'...

Well, I have discovered some interesting information. A John Osborne, Silversmith, is reported as having died on Castle Street (a street in Dublin), on the 10th December 1789. I'm assuming this cannot be the Jonas (John) Osborne mentioned in Douglas Bennett's Irish Silver books as his working life w...

I can't see why a forger would want to falsify marks on a marrow scoop, which are not particularly valuable and do it so incompetently that the disparity in marks is patently obvious. Marrow spoons are far more desirable so converting a table spoon to a marrow spoon was a common forgery both in Irel...

The JO mark does look like that of John (or Jonas) Osborne and I see no others similar to it in Bennett's books or Jackson's. Seems to be in much better condition (barely worn at all) than the other marks, which as you say, look like 1739, so perhaps the maker's mark is overstamped on an older piece...

Nowhere near as old as that.
MK: Michael Keating.
Dublin: 1766-1802.
As no date letter, but going by other marks and his last known working year, spoon could be between 1794-1802.

I could be wrong but I believe weights were scratched on by the assay office before being returned for final finishing so will not provide clues as to the maker. Joseph Walker (1690-1722) with the looped W in his mark (very similar to Edward Workman's looped W) is another possible maker of this tank...

..and the clearest marks of all from a tankard by Joseph Walker 1715:

...and from a sugar caster 1715..This shows the full harp, the top of which is worn away in other images.

Definitely 1715. Well spotted Aguest.

This is an Irish silver spoon tray 1715. Harp is identical including the dot in the human figure and the two holes in the sound box. Date letter clearly correct too.