Confusing little ladle

Good day friends.
I’m calling this spoon a ladle for now, because at least it does resemble larger gravy and soup ladles. Yet it is so small that I believe it warrants some other name. My putting this in the forum is because I’ve dug around in various sources so much that all the sometimes contradicting statements have made me confused. Please see the three pics of this sterling silver Sheffield spoon made by Viner’s Ltd in 1961. My snap identification is that it’s a sugar spoon.Yet there are many pics of vintage spoons floating around the internet having other shapes, that are all called sugar spoons or sugar scoops or sugar trowels. So please help me out with this little beauty. It was in a terrible condition when I purchased it for its melt value, but it is impeccable now.
Thank you
Jan



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Yes, definitely for semi-liquid sauces, not for sugar. “Gravy” is probably the wrong word, since it conjures up images of vast quantities of brown goo. These days, you’d probably want to use it for something that is taken in smaller doses, like some five-alarm hot sauce. :wink:

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Bartholomew & Jeff, this is a mind-changer for me. I am very much indebted. I must agree fully with you.
Regards, and thank you
Jan

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A good place to get an Idea of the use of a piece of flatware and its pattern is Replacements Limited. www.replacements.com They even have a photo ID for patterns. I’m not sure if your tape is inches or meters forgive my old eyes. The smaller ladles in the 5 1/2 inch length are called Cream Ladles. Here is one of mine Cream Ladle Trousseau by International Sterling Silver 5 1/2" 1934 - Ruby Lane

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Pink Carnation, thank you so much for your kind contribution. Your take on the spoon, that it is called a cream ladle, is spot on, I think.
I forgive your old eyes, the tape is neither inches nor meters (that’s just a little joke; my 80 YO eyes are just as bad! :wink:)
I did browse www.replacements and found it could come in handy in future.
Identifying a pattern by name has not been easy for me, despite intense searches in the past. Using the photo ID in your link, I put up my hereto unidentified Wellner silver teaspoon for pattern ID as an experiment, and they announced it to be “Pattern Code WLN4”, described as “scroll edge”. Whether that is the pattern name or merely a description, I cannot make out.
Anyhow, this is the Wellner spoon if anyone wants a look. It’s an uncomplicated pattern; “scroll edge” should be satisfactory.
Thank you once again, Pink Carnation!
Regards
Jan

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I would call it a mayonnaise ladle or a cream sauce ladle.
Mayonnaise being the smaller of the two.

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Thank you, daddy1947. (I suppose I could have been daddy1946!) Yes, for me that’s important to add to my vocabulary. I tend to be too rigid in my effort to put my modest silver spoon collection into little boxes that don’t take kindly to any variation. For example, teaspoon vs demitasse spoon vs mocha spoon vs salt spoon/ladle vs mustard spoon vs ice cream spoon, etc…! I should lighten up. As you implied in your contribution: use the spoon for any purpose that the shape of it allows. Of course, we know that in the olden days in well-to-do households, the table service was large and the items it contained quite specific. Forgive me, I digress.
Regards
Jan

Remembered from childhood:

I eat my peas with honey,
I’ve done it all my life.
They do taste kind of funny,
But it keeps them on my knife.

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See how our devotion to our silver collections lead us to wax poetical.
Regards
Jan

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From my childhood, the words of my late grandmother: “Eat or you will die.” My grandmother experienced hunger during the war as a nurse.