Hi, I’m new to all this. I’ve been doing some reading about hallmarks, date letters etc and from what I have learned so far I think this spoon might be valuable, but I’m not sure. The spoon is 23 cm long and weighs 45 grams. Any feedback would be much appreciated.
Your spoon is sterling silver, assayed in London in 1783. There seems to be the remains of a maker’s mark to the right of the hallmark, but not enough to be identifiable. The decorative embossing in the bowl of the spoon is a much later Victorian decoration which in the eyes of some people ruins the spoon.
Some idea of value can be gained by checking the “Sold” listings on Ebay - search for “berry spoon” and attempt to match size and weight.
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Thank you. I did think it was 1783, so thanks for confirming that. The lack of a maker’s mark did worry me.
This is interesting - You seem to imply that alterations to a piece of silver might be fairly common.
Would such an item be given to a silversmith to ‘improve’ for the taste of the times?
Alterations are not common, but neither are they unusual. The initiative for decoration of plain spoons in Victorian times would probably have been by the silversmith picking up a pair of old spoons and reworking them for profit. So-called pairs of berry spoons don’t necessarily even share the same hallmark/maker!
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Thank you. In this case, rather sad, I would say.