Help with early silver tablespoons

[rat-tail]

Hi All - any thoughts on these appreciated. two heavy tablespoons, bought in Cape Town as Glasgow, but feel they could be provincial. They have four marks at the base of the stem - so a little squashed - AG then what I think may be and anchor and then the marks are repeated. Have taken a picture of the last mark on both spoons, on the one it might be a thistle. The spoons have an unusually pronounced drop, quite a pronounced Hanoverian bevel - if that's the right word - on the front of the stem and a sharp upward curve at the finial. They are monogrammed - French style - underneath. They look hand fashioned and if i had to guess a date would say George II or early George III. Hoping someone out there knows Mr AG, where he might have worked and when. Thanks Frank



Marks from the bowl


The third and fourth marks on the second spoon

[dognose]

Hi Frank,

That's Adam Graham of Glasgow. Graham was working 1763 until 1818. He died in 1821.

Regards Trev.

[rat-tail]

Hi Trev - Many thanks and great to have some Glaswegian silver in the collection. Must admit what confused me was the lack of a rampant lion, but on closer examination realise that was a much later affair. Idiot me. Would it be safe to say that because these spoons are bottom marked they would be earlier in Mr Graham's long and industrious career, rather than later - as they would be if they were from London. I assume if they were 19th century they would have been in the fiddle pattern. - thanks Frank

[dognose]

Hi Frank,

Yes, these would have been made early in his career. The Hanoverian pattern and that strong central rib along the stem would have all but disappeared by the 1770's, so they were probably made within his first ten years of his working life.

Regards Trev.

[rat-tail]

Trev - many thanks - regards Frank