posted 01-20-2007 06:50 AM            

Hi -

I bought this spoon recently, and although it is hallmarked for England, Birmingham 1892 it doesn't look quite right. There are lots of dints on the back that look like they may once have been hallmarks, so I was wondering whether this spoon is actually much older and has been reworked in 1892.

I can't find out any more information on the web, does anyone know a site that could help?

Many thanks in advance for your help, Laura

posted 01-20-2007 09:17 AM            

This is not a good example of quality casting. Manufacturers (i.e., Gorham) have been known to use casting to make a few specialize items to round out a pattern line. They do this because a few items don't merit the cost of making a die. The casting techniques they tend to use are more involved and refined so results produced are very high quality & near the look of a die casting.

Hopefully you don't feel you paid a lot for this (remember we don't discuss actual values on this forum) and like your purchase. Some people enjoy collecting these faux items. If you intend to use this with food get one of those lead testing pencils/pens and make sure they didn't add lead to the metal mix.

posted 01-23-2007 12:30 PM            

Even with increased contrast and sharpness these marks do not look clean enough to me to be original stampings. A better original image would help, but as has been said, there is no substitute for having an object in hand.

posted 01-24-2007 08:40 AM            

When polished sheet silver is marked with a steel punch with a polished face and letters carved into the face and struck with a hammer onto the silver that is supported by a polished stake (such as a flat steel surface plate) the mark will be bright and clean on the top and bottom.
It will still need to be "set" which means that the back of the mark will protrude from the surface of the underside of the silver and by hammering from the front with a piece of lead between the hammer and the silver on a surface plate the mark will now sit flat. For spoons the lead is unnecessary and the marks are just plannished out with a polished hammer, that is why they tend to be squished on old spoons.

If the silver to be marked had rough file marks and you struck the marking punch as above the background around the raised letters of the marking punch would compress the file marks and with one strike they would subtly still be visible but with two strikes probably not.
The raised letters would still show the file marks because the force needed to compress the silver up into the cut letters is more than the effort to compress what is under the flat surface of the punch. If the punch was struck a third time or had been hit so hard to do the job the silver sheet would be very stressed or thin.

The mark when polished would loose those file marks but then would be worn or rounded so it is always better to pre-polish and then mark.

So far we are talking about marking good quality rolled or hammered sheet or bar silver, with cast silver it is different. Castings tend to be soft and punky compared to sheet. Also poor castings or poorly finished castings have a grainy surface.

Since they are delicate, i.e. if you struck a casting hard it probably would crack, they need to be struck lightly.

This spoon is a good example of what happens when you mark a bad casting. The background around the letters does show a slight pebble surface instead of a good clean one and the raised letters definitely have the cast surface still intact. Which looks to me that it was struck on top of the casting.

I hope this is clear and helpful; I am talking in generalizations about something that is very subtle. It took me years to mark well and I still blow it once and a while, double strikes, badly set marks, etc. When it goes well and you are left with a sharp, crisp, well-struck mark it feels like it will be there for a long, long time!