I‘d appreciate any help anyone can give me, this is the first time I’ve tried to read a hallmark so I hope you’ll forgive me if I make any silly assumptions or errors.
The hallmark I am trying to decipher is from an enamelled spoon as below. I think the enamel work is probably described as cloisonné. The spoon is quite small (4”) and the hallmarks are only about a millimetre high. I’ve cleaned up and sharpened the pictures as much as I can digitally. It took many shots with my digital camera to get some decent images I could use for identification.
It looks to me like the spoon was made in Birmingham in 1896. The Lion and Anchor mark for Birmingham and the W for 1896. I think it’s a W as it has an upwards tail on the left hand side of the W. These 3 marks, however, don’t appear to be in the traditional order — does that matter? Also, I’m not sure why the anchor is lying on its side — is this just a space/size issue?
The maker seems to be harder to identify. There is a letter F at the right hand side of the hallmark, but from what I’ve read most makers’ marks are at least 2 characters. I also read somewhere that this may be an exported piece and the F represents either a date or a sponsor mark for the importing country. This may tie in with another mark closer to the bowl of the spoon where a mark appears to say “Norway”.
There is what appears to be a raised flat area just before the lion mark. Could this have contained the maker’s mark? If so, it appears to have rubbed off with no chance of identification. On the opposite side to the “Norway” mark is another mark that may be decoration, or may be a maker’s symbol, I don’t know which.
As I say, I’d appreciate any help with any of the questions I’ve raised.
Thanks
Neil
