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Silver Collector Forums

Need Help identifying 2 spoons' marks please!

British Silver Reading Silver Hallmarks
#1

I have 2 spoons I need help with. I have 3 pictures for each spoon.

My first spoon is a silver rat tail. It has a deer/buck on top back handle, and 4 stamps on lower back stem. The first of the 4, starting with the lowest one, is a lions face with a crown above it. The 2nd one is a capital “O”. The 3rd is a lion with one paw raised, and the 4th I can not really distinguish at all. Here are the pictures:

…pictures trimmed & reduced by forum moderator…

WHOLE SPOON:

bcz5t.jpg750×248 12.6 KB

TOP BACK OF HANDLE:

4 STAMPS ON LOWER STEM:

2v0flli.jpg750×286 18.7 KB

Now for my second spoon, also a silver rat tail. On the top back of handle, it has “M S” then right under it, says “1729” then underneath that, “LB”. On the back lower stem is 4 stamps. They all kind of seem to be facing different directions. The first of the 4, starting with the lowest one, is W.T. The 2nd one is a lion with one paw raised. The 3rd is a capital N. the 4th one is a lions head with a crown on top. That one is upside down. Here are the pictures:

WHOLE SPOON:

i5osq8.jpg750×242 13.7 KB

TOP BACK OF HANDLE:

4 STAMPS ON LOWER STEM:

98hro3.jpg750×269 15.2 KB

I really need information on these spoons, especially maybe the value as I am looking to sell them in order to catch up with Mortgage payments and other bills. Thanks so much to anyone that can help!

#2

Your pictures are far too large for comfortable viewing. I would appreciate it if you could trim unnecessary bits out of the pictures and reduce the size so that it is possible to see a whole picture without scrolling horizontally or vertically. Please do that for the pictures in your other posts too.

You could probably get clearer and more useful pictures by moving your camera a bit farther away from the objects so that it stands a chance of focussing properly. I might even be able to work out who the maker of your first spoon is.

The first spoon is London 1729, maker’s mark too blurred to identify.

The second spoon is London 1728, maker William Toone.

What size are they (length & weight)?

#3

Hello, sorry for the lare pictures. I will try and learn how to resize them and get them even clearer. I am a newbie and finding it tough to do both.

I have a ton of these things and these ones like most are large table spoons.

–house

#4

Would I be better off selling these ones that are the same as sets of 6, 8 or 12 or sell one by one? Also, the spoons I posted thus far, any idea on ball parks value what so ever I will not hold you to as I do not know if they are worth 2 bucks or 200 bucks.

HELP,
HOUSE

BTW; STILL LEARNING HOW TO RESIZE PICS, I AM SUCH A NEWBIE

#5

As you will see I have cut down the size of your pictures. If you have a Windows-based system you should have a program called Paint or Paint.NET which you can use to trim and resize your pictures. I used a maximum width of 750 pixels for yours.

Value of early 18th century tablespoons here in the UK tends to be in the £80 - £100 range; i.e somwhere around $150. I don’t know about the US market. Of course condition is important with buyers paying a premium for lack of wear particularly to bowls, and for good crisp identifiable hallmarks.

I find the idea of splitting sets to be cultural vandalism and would never recommend it. What right have we, as temporary custodians of these pieces of history, to separate pieces which have been together for more than 300 years?