I have an old ladle which seems rather interesting. It is in the hanoverian pattern, but with an unusual bowl (can we call it 'scalloped'?). It is 34 cm long, with a 9cm diameter bowl and weighs 150 g.
My first question is about the name of such a ladle and its intended use?
It has 4 hallmarks which are not all clear:
The lion passant and the crowned leopard head are easily readable, so the London origin is almost sure, but the date letter and the maker mark are rather worn.
For what concern the date I have made the following analysis:
The hanoverian pattern shows that it was made after 1710, even the lion passant shows that it was made after 1719.
The lack of a duty mark would allow to date it before 1784.
The date letter should be read in the following direction :
If I am right on this orientation, then we can discard the period 1740-1755 because of the straight date letter outline. Considering the vertical bar on the left of the date letter, one can also discard the period 1756-1775 because the gothic style of the letter during this period does not fit this straight bar.
Thus we are left with 2 possible periods : 1719-1739 and 1776-1784.
In the latter, only the date letters b (for 1777-78) and h (for 1783-84) have a straight bar on the left.
In the first period (1719-1739) several letters have a straight bar on the left, but a closer look at the mark shows that the top of it is bent on the left. In that case only the letter b (for 1737-38) corresponds.
As a conclusion I guess that the ladle is either 1737 or 1777 or 1783.
The problem is that I cannot identify the maker mark, because it is not easily legible. Fortunately, the letters seems to be written in script, which is rather unusual. Could this help identify this maker, and consequently the date?
As shown in the following picture, it looks like is the first letter is a script G, but other letters could be possible.
Can someone help in commenting my analysis and identifying this maker?
Dinio
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