Hi everyone, I’m a silver nooby, but I was born with this in my mouth. It was my mother’s, she was Swiss. Any thoughts about provenance or value are welcome! Thank you.
Unfortunately your mouth was not full of silver when you were born. The 2 letters, EP, on your spoon stand for electroplate. This is probably British but I cannot immediately identify the maker as symbols are harder to trace than initials, which are what we normally see on electroplate.
Phil
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This is a Queens Pattern jam or preserve spoon. You may not have been born with any sterling silver (.925) in your mouth, but electroplate is a thin layer of .999 silver on a base metal. And a careful look at the patterned bowl shows flecks of gold so the bowl was gilt. Mum really went overboard!
Queen’s pattern named after Queen Victoria, was exported all over Europe both as sterling and electro-plate and the Swiss will have got their share.
Find a nice cut glass preserve jar, to pair with your spoon and your morning marmalade could show up unblushingly at the Downtown Abbey breakfast table with Carson’s approval.
Ebay has a very similar item on offer for eight of your pounds or $12.
The maker deserves his anonymity as his marks are designed to look like hallmarks right down to the Sheffield town mark of the Crown. At some point it was made illegal to use town marks on baser metal or EPNS so this is either relatively early or American. Probably late Victorian and because of the oak leaves and pineapple English. ( I know you don’t grown pineapples over there but the rich used to import them at great expense and make stone copies to stick on their gateposts and even incorporated them in their heraldic devices sometimes together with the heads of the African slaves they bought to cut and ship them.
Christopher