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Author Topic:   Original Purpose?
trefid2

Posts: 73
Registered: Jul 2015

iconnumber posted 09-03-2016 12:01 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for trefid2     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I have a pair of what I suspect are 18th C. Hanoverian pattern continental spoons, 3 7/8" in length, bottom marked with maker's mark for "PO" (I have no clue who this is). They also have a Dutch boar's head tax mark for foreign made silver-small articles. I find the bowl shape to be unusual, any thoughts what they were used for?



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ahwt

Posts: 2334
Registered: Mar 2003

iconnumber posted 09-03-2016 11:45 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for ahwt     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
They have the appearance marrow spoons. I have never quite understood the use of these spoons, but marrow spoons were at one time very popular given the number of antique ones that are still available.

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Kimo

Posts: 1627
Registered: Mar 2003

iconnumber posted 09-04-2016 12:49 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Kimo     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I agree that they look like marrow spoons. They would be used to dig down inside a bone to scoop out the marrow and then the user would eat it. I'm not sure that many people actually eat bone marrow anymore but I guess it used to be considered a delicacy.

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agphile

Posts: 798
Registered: Apr 2008

iconnumber posted 09-04-2016 04:02 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for agphile     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I showed a number of English marrow spoons and scoops in this thread: Marrow Spoons and Scoops

It strikes me that these pieces by PO are shorter than even my smaller examples and the bowl or scoop section proportionately shorter still.

Of course, spoons or scoops for the continental market won’t necessarily have matched English forms but these bowls seem to me a bit too short to excavate very far into a marrow bone. That said, I have no other bright suggestion for their use. I assume they must be for getting at some rather small delicacy whether or not that is marrow.


I might have suggested they were simply for removing contents from a narrow-necked jar but I’m not sure why there would be a pair in that case.

Anyhow, an interesting and pretty looking pair.

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trefid2

Posts: 73
Registered: Jul 2015

iconnumber posted 09-04-2016 10:40 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for trefid2     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I suppose there would have been bones that would have required a smaller extraction spoon, perhaps these were a silversmith's solution. I'm not well versed in continental silver but wasn't it standard practice to mark silver with more than just a maker's mark, perhaps these were provincially made? Not sure why, but these have a French or Belgian feel to me.

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agphile

Posts: 798
Registered: Apr 2008

iconnumber posted 09-05-2016 05:06 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for agphile     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I cannot really help with identifying the maker or place of origin. I am probably only rehearsing what you already know and I am certainly no expert on silver from continental Europe. I would have expected French hallmarking requirements to be fairly strictly enforced. Belgium was not an independent country back then but I think there were hallmarking requirements for each major city. However, I’ve certainly seen references to provincial pieces from Northern Europe and Scandinavia with only a maker’s mark or only a town mark.

In early 18th century England, in London as well as the provinces, it was not at all uncommon for small items like teaspoons to carry just a maker’s mark. However, I cannot spot a matching PO mark in any of my reference books. This doesn’t necessarily rule England out though the shape of the bowl/scoop is definitely not typical of English flatware.

All this is just a long-winded way of saying I have nothing useful to offer, but I do like the pair, as much as anything precisely because they are a bit different.

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trefid2

Posts: 73
Registered: Jul 2015

iconnumber posted 09-05-2016 01:33 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for trefid2     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Agreed agphile. I was also drawn to them because they were different from the norm.

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trefid2

Posts: 73
Registered: Jul 2015

iconnumber posted 09-05-2016 07:19 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for trefid2     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Could they possibly be snuff spoons? Granted, the length is rather long for this type of spoon.

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agphile

Posts: 798
Registered: Apr 2008

iconnumber posted 09-06-2016 04:10 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for agphile     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
As you say, they seem a bit long to have been fitted inside a pocket snuff box like the example below (and why a pair?).

They might have been for table snuff boxes, I suppose, but the bowls/scoops seem a bit large for measuring out a pinch of snuff.

However, you may be on to something. I don’t know how snuff boxes were normally re-filled. Perhaps some folk used spoons like this? Could the bowl shape be for filling some small container with snuff or condiments?

If they were a bit shorter I might have been tempted to describe them simply as condiment spoons with an unusual bowl shape. I suspect this combination of shape and size may remain a minor mystery unless somebody comes across some hard evidence.

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