Here is a decent Scottish basting spoon marked for Edinburgh 1815, 30.8cm, 92g. But the sponsor’s mark seems to have been purposely obliterated. Any ideas why this should have been done? If it were under standard, surely the hallmarks would have been obliterated, not the sponsor’s mark…
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Many thanks Bart for your usual insight into these arcane questions. I’d like to think that the marks were for Marshall’s, but I can’t make out any sign of the curve of an “S” on the right side, unless the obliterator has been particularly zealous. The various reasons for obliteration are very interesting: I have a table fork hallmarked for London, but with the mark of David Crichton Rait, a Glasgow silversmith. On closer examination, it would appear that Rait overstamped the London sponsor’s mark with his own, maybe for resale under his own name in Scotland.
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My pleasure, Nick! I think the reasons for blurring the signatures are prosaically obvious and nefarious—profit! However, I’d reserve any final conclusions until the esteemed experts here speak.
many thanks Bart
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