Sterling Hallmarked Souvenir Spoon?

[hpidaves]

I was able to identify this small spoon (4-1/4") from the hallmarks as being made in Edinburgh, Scotland in either 1912 or 1913, depending on which letter code chart I use. The code is a capital "G" inside a shield. This site's chart shows it as 1913:

https://www.925-1000.com/dlc_edinburgh.html

And another site's chart shows it as 1912:

https://www.silvermakersmarks.co.uk/Dat ... -1930.html

The maker's mark is "JWK", and I have not been able to identify who it is. My main questions, though, are as follows:

- Is it a collector spoon?
- There is a reddish-brown, even orange, stone of some type encased in sterling at the tip -- what type of stone is it?
- Is the shape at the tip significant, and if so, what is it?

Regards,
Dave

[silvermakersmarks]

Date letter G is 1912. The chart on this 925-1000 site has a spurious extra letter in the previous cycle - the 'u' at 1901 should be 'v' so all succeeding letters are one year out.

JWK is J W Kirwan & Co, a Birmingham company. This implies that that the spoon was specially made for the Scottish market so may very well have been an early souvenir spoon. The spoon handle has the form of a sword so the end is the hand grip and the small ball on the end is the pommel. I do not know what the stone might be.

Phil

[AG2012]

Hi,
Based on the fact the spoon was meant for Scottish market,the stone is most likely Scottish agate,a semi precious stone.
Agate jewellery has been produced in Scotland for hundreds of years, though it was Queen Victoria’s love affair with all things Scottish, which propelled this distinctive type of jewellery to public view. Popular designs were ‘plaid’ brooches (ie agates laid together in a kind of mosaic), and carved agates set into silver bracelets, complete with carved agate buckles, heart clasps and charms.
Regards

[Aguest]

Queen Victoria started a trend for “Scottish Pebble” jewelry and various semi-precious stones were used including agate, but another stone widely used was Carnelian, and the Stone seems to me to be Carnelian ::

[AG2012]

The two gemstones, carnelian and agate, are from the same quartz family.
Carnelian is the antiquarian term for heated red agate.
Regards