www.925-1000.com

Hi,

I have seen this fork with 4 marks: I'm unable to identify them with the resources I have. To be honest, I'm not even sure, that this is French, but it might be a veuve (http://www.ascasonline.org/articoloMARZ125ING.html) as I see similarities in the way the hallmarks are expressed.

1- a small crown
2- unrecognizable
3- a crown and T dot V H
4- a crown with letter F

Thanks for any help in identifying the marks and the date.

Images have been lost, here they are again:

This is 18th French silver indeed - from the city of Dunkerque, which is part of the jurisdiction of the city of Lille in northern France.

Your three hallmarks are as follows:
Crowned F with Fleur de lys - letter date for 1738
Reconnaissance/mark for the city of Dunkerque 1730-1760
Maker's mark - crowned TVH for Thomas Van Den Heede

A simple comment. Look at the shape and length of each fork tang. Would that considered common on four tang forks of this period? Had never noticed that detail before.

Warren

This is simply wear to the tines - quite common in a fork that is so old. If the wear is minimal, a competent silversmith can repair by cutting down each tine a bit, evening them out and sharpening. In this case, the wear on the far right tine appears so severe that evening out would not yield a functional result in my opinion. Sometimes a silversmith proposes adding silver to the tines, but to me this never looks right.

Thank you Jay, much appreciated.