18th Century spoon mystery

[antiquer]

Hello,
Picked this spoon up at a local antiques market last week. I'm really stumped here, sure it is of late 18th century vintage and have checked all of my available references to no avail.
The marks show some similarity to early hallmarks used in Madrid, Spain and Colonial Mexico, but not nearly enough of a similarity to peg them as such.
In truth, the spoon looks American to me and the AD maker's mark might be a match for Abraham Dubois of Philadelphia, making all the rest pseudomarks, but they don't really look or feel like any American pseudos I've seen.
If anyone has a clue, I'd appreciate the feedback.
Thanks,
AinA
-------------------------

[gadroon]

What is the second to last mark?

[antiquer]

it is a lower case letter = r

[SilverSurfer]

Nice spoon. The marks are intriguing, prompted me to make a sweep through Jackson's III and Tardy (old), but no luck. Overall, it has a Brit, particularly Irish, provincial "feel" to me, based on the crown, castle, and apparent celtic point at the finial. The castle and crown are popular elsewhere, as in France and Spain. In fact, this particular castle treatment (one gate, two windows, three turrets) is very common. However, the complicated treatment of the top of the crown is fairly unique and should be readily identifiable where ever it may be documented. Were the spoon French, I would expect a much larger "shelf" at the bowl tip, and the apparent simple lower case date letter would be suspect. Sorry, only conjecture on my part, maybe someone with a Grimwade can help. Good luck!

SS

[admin]

Bounced to the top for another look.

[paulh]

This looks like a Baltic spoon to me. I have a Latvian piece with an identical union joint and the same overall shape. The pointed bowl and finial are common from what is now Poland right through to Estonia.

[dognose]

Hi,

As there are a lot of new members on the Forum I wonder if anyone can add to Paul's thoughts on this spoon.

Trev.

[Doos]

Hi,

The castle (town gate tower) looks a bit like the town mark of Alkmaar, Netherlands - or the mark of Middelburg during the reign of the Louis Napoleon (1806-1810). The rest of the marks do not add up to that though, especially not the crowned letter.

The striking of the town mark twice is typical Dutch though, indicating high silver content.

[admin]

Hi,
In light of this new post;
http://www.925-1000.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=20874" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
I've resurrected this old unsolved mystery for ease of comparison.
Regards, Tom