I'm new to the forum and slightly nervous about the complex rules for posting and the risk of having a whole thread deleted or my account banned, so I hope my first posting goes ok! I know that it is a rule that only one item may be posted in a thread. I am assuming that this is to prevent people posting lots of different items. In this case the items are a set of four identical items, so I am posting photos of all of them, partly so that I can show both sides of the item in one photo, and partly because it means I can include four sets of hallmarks, some of which are easier to read than others.
I have tried to do my research, but I fear I haven't done very well.
The item is English sterling silver. I hope that I have got that much right. It also appears to date from the reign of George III, so I hope that I have got that right too. There is no city mark, which I understand is not uncommon on small items from this period. To the best of my ability I have identified the year as being London 1789. A lot of date letters look quite similar to the untrained eye, but this seemed like the closest match. The maker's mark is almost illegible to me, and I have not found anything like it in any of the lists of makers marks for the whole of England. I'll give a description, as it is so hard to read. It seems to be a square containing four letters, one in each quadrant. I would say that the letter in the top right is almost certainly an M. I had a feeling that the one in the top left could have been a W, but I'm really not sure.
As for the purpose of these items, I have guessed that they are salt spoons, but that may be wrong. They are approx. 15 mm in length, with the bowl being approx. 23 mm in width and approx. 5 mm in depth.
Even if I am wrong about the date of 1789, they certainly seem to date from the period 1760-1820. In 1996 they were given as a baptism gift from the godfather to his godson and for this occasion the letters of the godson's baptismal name, "SA", were engraved on the handle. The engraving was undertaken by Asprey & Garrard Limited, which at the time was the crown jeweller (the godfather was a member of the Royal Household, so there is a further personal connection there). I am curious to know what people in the world of silver tend to think about this sort of development. On the one hand, I'm not sure if it would be considered a kind of vandalism to make this kind of modification to something over 200 years old, but on the other hand I wonder whether it is simply seen as an interesting piece of the history of the item and a perfectly legitimate use.
On one of the spoons the stem seems to have been broken and reattached, seemingly by soldering. I don't know whether this is common or not.
I'd be very interested to hear any feedback on the city, date, and maker, and also any observations about the relatively recent engraving and the repair.
Thanks very much,
Stephen
