Dublin Teaspoon

[scorpio]

This is a mangled Irish Georgian silver teaspoon dug up while gardening many years ago. I have no idea how long it was underground, perhaps 200 years for all I know. I'd forgotten about it until clearing items from my mother's display cabinet yesterday and came across it again. It is of no value apart from its silver content but is an interesting piece.

As you can see, it is a feather edge teaspoon with bright cut decoration and has the Dublin Harp and Britannia hallmarks dating it to 1793 - 1796 far as I can tell from Jackson's Hallmarks. You will note however the lack of date and maker's marks and I wonder why the Dublin Assay Officials punched the harp and Britannia but omitted to punch the date mark while the goldsmith also did not punch his mark, usually done before sending the silver piece to the Assay Office.

In this respect, I am reminded of John Luddington's remarks in his excellent book Starting to Collect Silver "Up to the third quarter of the eighteenth century, the assay officials and goldsmiths of Dublin seemed consistently unpredictable in their use of marks. Thus, the beginner who is still unable to determine date by style is liable to become confused". Consistently unpredictable is a wonderful turn of phrase by Luddington! Seems though the unpredictability of the Dublin Assay Office and goldsmiths extended to the last quarter of the eighteenth century as well!

Before checking the marks in Jackson's, I had thought c. 1780 for the spoon so I wasn't too far out. Note that on this spoon the harp and crown are completely separated while in Jackson's there is a sliver on the right side connecting the two. Bennet also seems to show the harp and crown touching at this point.

[scorpio]

I should add that the Harp is not actually broken at the top as it appears to be in the photo. That's just a trick of the light and camera.

[scorpio]

I managed to take a better photo of the hallmarks.

[dognose]

Hi Scorpio,

My first thoughts were that the marks were dubious, but then I remembered we have a similar example a while back.

See: http://www.925-1000.com/forum/viewtopic ... 56&t=27632

Unfortunately the images are no longer viewable, but you'll get the idea.

A good silversmith could do wonders with your spoon.

Trev.

[scorpio]

Hi Trev,

I hadn't thought of spurious marks and I don't think so in this case but who knows. I read the other thread and the number of strings on the harp does indeed vary. I have a 1819 soup ladle where the harp has five strings, an 1834/5 teaspoon with six strings and this mangled teaspoon has three strings. There is no question that the harp and crown were completely detached on the punch and any possible reworking of the silver did not cause the gap.

I came across a jeweller the other day who is quite close to me and advertises he repairs antique silver so I'll show him the spoon. It's badly bent but no splits.