Good day friends. I was lucky to have a friend agree to my borrowing one of his spoon sets to study. It has been super studying it so far, but I have more than one problem with it. I have to return the set, just like a library book 
, so Iām rushing it through the forum for some advice, please. See my pics if you will.
Jan
Date-marked for 1978 but the makerās mark is not listed at Hallmarking of twentieth century South African precious metal artefacts. The set has the expected 13 spoons for Christ and the 12 apostles.
Phil
Antelope head in oval = Republic of SA; STG = sterling; E = date letter for 1978.
My first problem is that South African makers, due to legal restrictions at the time, were prohibited from making themselves known. Initials were applied to the work, but the people could not be identified. So these initials cannot be researched currently, although some have luckily been āuncoveredā. The maker who made this set, now not on the available records, might never be āfound outā. I have even heard that many of these makers skipped the country in order to go where their craftmanship is better appreciated and the economic prospects are better!.
Secondly, these sets are advertised on line, but the makerās mark is read as āA Jā and so advertised. Looking at examples of old English script fonts, I personally think the initials are actually āA Sā. To misread a mark is serious, as researchers are apt to take the word of a seller as correct.
Can anyone please throw a bit more light on this matter?
Regards
Jan
I also read the initials as AS.
