The marks were grubby when I first saw the spoon but I thought there could be import marks present to give the extra cartouches.
After cleaning I realised that one of the marks could be the import mark for Dublin. I thought I remembered seeing this odd “music notation” like mark previously in my old “Bradbury’s book of Hallmarks” and on a 1927 spoon hallmarked at “Sheffield’s” Assay office. I could not find a representation of the mark in the 925-1000 import mark section. Likewise my “Jackson’s Pocket Edition” did not seem to have a representation of the Dublin import mark. I did after a trawl of the “Post Board” find what we all want to see is a post from 2008 with a full list of Britain and Ireland import marks. Link hopefully at finish of post. There are also a few other photos that can be found.
Dublin is usually regarded as being part of the “British” hallmarking system but in the 1920’s the “Irish Free State” came into being (now known as the Republic of Ireland or Eire), with Dublin as the capital city. From then on British silver would be “foreign” and need import marking.
Looking at the marks in my picture, the group of 4 larger marks are Chester marks. The strange letter mark is in fact a stylised “N” and the date letter for 1938. The shield mark indicates the Chester guild. The 3 smaller marks, in addition to the Dublin import mark, are the 925 silver standard mark and the Dublin date letter mark “x” for 1939.
I hope I have got that right or I have bored you with some history for nothing.
Import mark list.
http://i109.photobucket.com/albums/n80/ ... 0007-6.jpg
Yours
Fishless
Ps. The Chester maker’s mark that can just be partly seen is a variant mark of “S.Blanckensee & Sons Limited”. Although it is not the maker’s mark shown listed on 925-1000 for “Blanckensee” it is shown on “www.silvermakersmarks.co.uk” site. I think there is a link to the latter site.