Postby JayT » Tue Feb 14, 2017 10:41 am
Hello
The marks you show are from top to bottom:
Maker's mark, charge mark, date letter mark, and discharge mark, in the order they were stamped, all as they should be and all in concordance. You are reading the charge mark well, Louis Robin 1738-1744. The date letter mark appears to be crowned Z for 1739, what do you think? The ox head discharge mark is also correct for the timeframe. As for the maker's mark, if you could clean it out a bit and show a sharper image I might be able to help. Could the initials be CG or GG? OG is not ringing any bells.
The 2 is most likely the owner's personal inventory mark to help keep track of the flatware!
I'm not too sure what you mean about every piece of French silver having import marks; that would depend on where you are finding your French silver. This particular object was made in Paris, so would not have a French import mark. As for duty marks, the French equivalents are the charge and discharge marks which indicate tax assessed and paid. I'm not aware of any other French duty marks; if you could clarify it would help me to comment. Yes, there could be extra marks such as recount marks, but in general, pre-Revolutionary French silver has the 4 types of marks which appear on your spoon.
Hope this helps.