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I inherited a few old silver berry spoons and would like to find out more about the hallmarks. Could a member of this forum confirm whether my findings about the hallmarks are correct: Sterling silver, city - London, year - 1786, maker - Ebenezer Coker

Hi,

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Trev.

All good - except for the date, which is 1746.

You may be aware that the decoration is not original to the spoon; it has suffered from the Victorian vogue of prettifying an old, plain spoon. I prefer to see it as it was intended, but personal tastes differ.....

Phil

dognose wrote:Hi,

Welcome to the Forum.

If using https://postimages.org choose 'Share', then copy the 'Hotlink for forums' code. Remember to use the Preview feature.

Trev.

Thanks Trev

silvermakersmarks wrote:All good - except for the date, which is 1746.

You may be aware that the decoration is not original to the spoon; it has suffered from the Victorian vogue of prettifying an old, plain spoon. I prefer to see it as it was intended, but personal tastes differ.....

Phil

Thanks for your help, Phil. An additional question about decorating an old, plain spoon: Are you referring to the handle or also to the bowl?

Klaus

Both handle and bowl would have been done at the same time, possibly with another spoon to make a pair, but the other spoon may have had a completely different hallmark - they didn't bother too much about that sort of thing!

Phil

silvermakersmarks wrote:Both handle and bowl would have been done at the same time, possibly with another spoon to make a pair, but the other spoon may have had a completely different hallmark - they didn't bother too much about that sort of thing!

Phil

That probably explains why I inherited 4 similarly decorated berry spoons with different silver makers´marks!