Fork with "veuve"-hallmarked?

[pmp]

Hi,

I have seen this fork with 4 marks: I'm unable to identify them with the resources I have. To be honest, I'm not even sure, that this is French, but it might be a veuve (http://www.ascasonline.org/articoloMARZ125ING.html) as I see similarities in the way the hallmarks are expressed.

1- a small crown
2- unrecognizable
3- a crown and T dot V H
4- a crown with letter F

Thanks for any help in identifying the marks and the date.

[pmp]

Images have been lost, here they are again:

[fermiersgeneraux]

This is 18th French silver indeed - from the city of Dunkerque, which is part of the jurisdiction of the city of Lille in northern France.

Your three hallmarks are as follows:
Crowned F with Fleur de lys - letter date for 1738
Reconnaissance/mark for the city of Dunkerque 1730-1760
Maker's mark - crowned TVH for Thomas Van Den Heede

[WarrenKundis]

A simple comment. Look at the shape and length of each fork tang. Would that considered common on four tang forks of this period? Had never noticed that detail before.

Warren

[JayT]

This is simply wear to the tines - quite common in a fork that is so old. If the wear is minimal, a competent silversmith can repair by cutting down each tine a bit, evening them out and sharpening. In this case, the wear on the far right tine appears so severe that evening out would not yield a functional result in my opinion. Sometimes a silversmith proposes adding silver to the tines, but to me this never looks right.

[WarrenKundis]

Thank you Jay, much appreciated.