Im curious of whether the silversmith initials are WB or IM. The lion for sterling is def the same way as IM though. Anyone have any idea if this is a Victorian piece or early or later? thank you.
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Definitely IM / JM, script I and J being the same.
The next obvious things (to me anyway) are that the lion passant is a provincial one, not London, and there is a Georgian duty mark. Together this leads me to the probability that this is the mark of John Manly III of Newton Abbot, Devon, with an Exeter assay mark. Without a date letter (not necessarily unusual for Exeter) I can only suggest that the date is somewhere around 1790.
These spoons would have started life as plain Old English pattern with the decoration / desecration being done during Victorian times when plain silver was not fashionable.
Phil
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Thank you all for the information. Much appreciated. Cheers!
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I wonder if the initials AA on the upside of spoon belonged to. A person with initials AA from Devon I guess. I find them beautiful and in such good condition. Thank you again to everyone.
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A truly interesting find. Could be a double A or might it be an M, in which case I suppose the set might have been made by John Manley for a member of his own family?
Jacksons at p.304 shows him working in Newtown Abbott from 1760 to 1794. This compendium of silversmiths omits to mention his forebears, I and II. “I” get’s a possible from Leopard who suggests a Britannia Trefid spoon “We now believe this to be the mark of John Manley I of Dartmouth, who entered his mark in Exeter in 1705 (See mark 86, West Country Spoons”
John Manley III had his workshop on Bridge Street in town and may have had the only workshop until he was joined by Jonas Jonas who worked as a silversmith and clockmaker 1802-3. (Jacksons p 305).
Today the town has some 30,000 and is a 2.5hr. commute to London by rail. Back then before the rail it was a market town of some 1623 souls. Which sounds slim pickings for silversmith, but it was wealthy from wool, leather, pottery clay and Newfoundland fish.
It supported four clockmakers in that last gasp of the UK clockmaker before the Swiss and then the US put them out of business.
Today holiday makers know little of Newton Abbott a port marking the end of the navigable portion of the river but Slapton Sands and Teignmouth have been a holiday makers destination since 1846 when railroads catered to the factory workers getting two weeks off.
You don’t say what size your spoons are or your plans for them? Value is tricky. On the one hand a rare west coast mark on the other hand what Phil calls the desecration of the Victorian engraver which the US market tolerates much better that the UK.
CRWW
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I suppose the next question is contemporary or was the initial added when the bright-cut work was done later? I had decided contemporary based solely on the letter style and the placement of the initial but I may be wrong about it being an M.
Initials on silver are traditionally placed so the users can read them. On the back when spoons used to be bowl-down and on the front when it was bowl up. Why were spoons, and for that matter forks. ever placed bowl or tine down? Fashion plus possibly the same reason beer mugs used to have lids – to stop stuff getting inside.
So must easy to read by user means it’s a W because that would be the butt of the spoon pointing to him?
But there really doesn’t seem to be any hard and fast rule.
Here’s a Georgian tablespoon with two initials and we actaully know who put them on and when and what they stand for.
The small B went on when the spoon was made and delivered to London confectioner Robert Blease and the capital M, to stay with the same perspective was added when Frank Wilson his wife’s brother, a London Brewer, acquired the set and passed it on to his son my grandfather all W’s and no M’s.
CRWW
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All this is so interesting. You both have a lot of knowledge and I’m so grateful for your sharing. I’m Canadian and a lot of old English money came here and brought their antiques…
As for selling price. Some EBay sellers have one desert spoon from 1790 going for $700usd others 200usd. Seems quite excessive. Not sure bc I have a set of six in great condition and there are hardly any with a shell shape.
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AA? - – - – - - 
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