I am a new collector and have just bought a 1749 Georgian silver shell back spoon with the maker’s mark for Ebeneezer Coker. All of that is clear even to this newbie!
What is a mystery to me is what appears to be THREE sets of initials on the handle - LM over ITB then the date 1749 over LAC.
2 sets of initials with the same surname suggests a wedding gift, 3 if they had the same surname might suggest the birth of a child? But 3 apparently unlinked sets?
I had the thought that the upper 2 sets were abbreviations for some ‘well known phrase or saying’ ( Roman inscriptions show this, I think) but searches on the internet have proved fruitless.
Can anyone enlighten me?