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I just picked up a nice early San Francisco silver (likely coin) soup ladle made or flogged on by Fredrick Reichel in the beaded pattern (Vanderslice dies?), as retailed by M.M.Baldwin. Here are a few pics:





While the piece is in overall very good condition, it evidences wear (damage?) that I have noticed in the past with other large ladles, namely numerous sharp dings in the bowl interior:



These are not caused by forks, the dints are much too sharp. They are made by the points of knives, ice picks, or something similar. One strike was hard enough to deform the bowl on the far side. I had a thread years ago on this subject, link below:

http://925-1000.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=34&t=15549

No definitive cause was ever identified. I just thought I'd post my most recent example. What were these people doing with their coin/sterling soup ladles??? Mumbledy peg in a bowl??? Whatever it was, it seems to have been quite a widespread activity. Any new ideas?

Oops, forgot the measurements: 207 grams, 32.2 cm length, 11.5 cm bowl width.

You seem to have elongated nicks at the back base of the handle too....so, if these are natural mars and you subtract those kind of scars from the bowl nicks, does that leave you only with circular pock marks? Could those then be explained as chemical action gradually working into the silver?

Closer examination indicates that the nicks have shape consistent with impact by a knife point as opposed to, say, an ice pick or awl. Definitely mechanical, not chemical, damage. Now what would people be stabbing with a knife in a ladle bowl, hundreds of times? As mentioned in the referenced thread, I have other ladles with this same damage. Whatever was the activity, it seems to have been a popular sport!

Carrots? Not softened enough in cooking, lifted up and broken with a knife to make them smaller when dished out. I'm having visions of a panicky chef trying to solve a common problem.

I still think this is due to breaking up sugar. In the pre-granulated days, sugar was supplied in large cones and lumps chipped off as required, it would then need to be broken up into smaller pieces and ground before serving. The bowl of a ladle would have been a handy receptacle to place the detached lump, break it up with a pick or knife, and then grind it by applying the back of a spoon bowl into the larger ladle bowl. The two rounded surfaces would nicely crush the sugar into a uniform lump-free powder.

Trev.

Oh the creative life before "As Seen On TV"!

BTW..I have a device called the "Chipper Chopper" (patent was pending). Like a long ice pick with a ring of smaller pick activated by a spring as pressure increased. You could break of a chunk and then make chunkettes. The people with these ladles might have loved it! We just get a good laugh.

Re the breaking up of sugar lumps, note that this ladle is about 1860 manufacture (pattern attributed to Vanderslice) or slightly thereafter. I had thought that this was after the introduction of granulated sugar, but it appears that this was the transition time, so you may well be right, Trev, sorry for discounting your theory! Link below to a Wiki description of sugar nips, used to break up sugar loaves (cones) prior to the introduction of granulated sugar.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sugar_nips

Pic of the apparatus:

SilverSurfer wrote:I just picked up a nice early San Francisco silver (likely coin) soup ladle made or flogged on by Fredrick Reichel in the beaded pattern (Vanderslice dies?), as retailed by M.M.Baldwin....

Excerpted from the 1867 Henry G Langley San Francisco Directory General Review: The extensive manufactories of R B Gray & Co, Vanderslice & Co and F R Reichel produce a large amount of silver ware annually and afford employment in the aggregate to about 75 men.