www.925-1000.com

Hi all

It's been a while between visits. About 7 years in fact! Anyway, life moves in mysterious ways and I've re-discovered my passion for sterling silver and hall marking!

I've got a fairly plain fiddle back spoon. It was purchased in a (motley?) collection of spoons, the rest of which have been identified as American silver, all coin silver (no sterling marks in the lot!), mostly dating around 1850 -1890.

This one is a puzzle. One of the other forums I frequent reckoned it was Norwegian silver, due to the Assay Mark for Trondheim (being an upper case M, for the period 1842-1863). Date fits, but not sure the other marks do.



Apologies for the lack of a full image, will do that in future, hope someone can shed some more light on this spoon.

Cheers

Waylander

Ok, that didn't work. And I've forgotten how to edit posts. Ha.

Take 2:




Hope it works this time.

Bit rusty after 7 years or so....

Waylander

Hi Waylander,

Welcome back to the Forum.

It's Maltese.

Maltese silver of this period carries the makers mark and also a single letter that denotes one of the three silver standards permitted at this time, the standard was divided into 12ths and as follows:-

"F" (French Silver) 11 1/2 parts Silver to 1/2 part alloy
"R" (Roman Silver) 11 parts Silver to 1 part alloy
"M" (Maltese Silver) 10 1/2 parts Silver to 1 1/2 parts alloy

See: http://www.925-1000.com/forum/viewtopic ... 38&t=33204

Not sure of the maker, hopefully someone else can identify him.

I'll move the topic to the Provincial & Colonial Marks section to see if we have any luck there.

Trev.

Cheers Trev

Waylander

Good to see you back, Waylander.

The maker's mark is similar to that of Antonio Portelli (AP in a shield with fleur-del-lis above), drawn in Denaro, 'The Goldsmiths of Malta and their Marks'. The 'date of mention' it gives is 1808, which is not impossible for your spoon.

Miles

Cheers Miles. The maker's mark you describe certainly fits what I have, so I'll use Mr Portelli as the tentative attribution.

Thanks for your help

Waylander