Hallmarks on a spoon

Ok, another mystery. We unearthed a spoon recently and I'm having difficulty deciphering the hallmarks. At first we thought the spoon was silver, however we have scratched it and the metal looks gold in colour. From the hallmarks, I don't think it's silver. Can anyone help us out?

This may help for some of the marks
http://www.silvercollection.it/englishsilvermarksXGDUE3.html

Most probably Nickle Silver.

StoneTheCrows said:

This may help for some of the marks
http://www.silvercollection.it/englishsilvermarksXGDUE3.html

Click to expand...

That database would only help if the spoon was actually solid silver. Given the 'gold' underlying colour it's clearly electroplated nickel silver (EPNS):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nickel_silver

The 'hallmarks' are just used to make a cheap plated spoon look like the real thing.

I've often wondered how much silverware gets sold way under market value at garage sales.

Thanks everyone. That explains why I can't identify a couple of the marks. I've been to the websites you have all suggested. It's so much fun finding all these things, & then to try to identify them -keeps us busy

If you read further on in the hallmark links, electroplaters do indeed have their own makers marks and hallmarks despite not being solid silver. 90% of the old cutlery I find is plated and with hallmarks.

Hi SueBru,

This is a curly one, alright! Given that you said it's base colour looks gold, and the odd marks on it, I'd say it's either EPNS or it could also be EPCA (Electro Plated Copper Alloy). This Makers mark (GS) is not easy to find in an Electroplaters Makers list, as most of them deal in EPNS (Elecro Plated Nickel Silver), and I'm sure this is EPNS. And a lot of them simply weren't registered at all.

Also, given those marks are so "odd", I'd say it's not from the UK. And I'd also say it probably wasn't officially assayed to record them, so very hard to find!

Maybe try around the Scandinavian countries, because they look a bit like rune symbols to me (or someone just made them up and could be Australian that wasn't officially recorded here!). Although I read about a guy called George Savage who used GS and "English Hallmark likenesses". But I don't know if I'd call them likenesses, since they're so unusual! There were no pictures, unfortunately, but possibly him... He was from Canada.

And just a quick FYI to anyone reading this, the word HALLMARK is only applied to platinum, palladium, silver and gold articles that have been sent to an assay office. It was originally called "the Hall" from the ancient Goldsmiths Company's hall where the first assay office was set up in 1478 in London. The 'hall' would assay, test and record their precious metal content, (which must have a certain weight included in it to be hallmarked, as they are often alloyed with other metals for strengthening), and then gave them their hallmark. By law, in many countries (not all), they must be hallmarked if being advertised for sale as gold, silver etc.

Others that are not officially assayed as one of the four precious metals, just have what is called a "MARK".

So being electroplated, this spoon has 'marks' on it, not 'hallmarks'.
This may help you when searching Google - don't ask for "hallmarks" - ask for electroplaters' "makers marks".
Unfortunately they are not as well documented as Hallmarks, if at all, so this will make it a tough task for you to find out who made that spoon.

But good luck - I love this kind of research too!

Cheers,
Megsy

It appears that the GS stands for British tableware manufacturer George Sissons and was used on their EPNS items:
http://www.silvercollection.it/electroplatesilverSdue.html#SISSONS



http://www.silvercollection.it/ENGLASISSONS.html

I found this old spoon at Hill End in NSW
At first glance I thought the symbols were similar.

I think your pic of the marks is upside-down. Try this:


From left, it looks to me like two initials that I can't read, then an ampersand (&) and another initial. Then a symbol that looks like a crown, two more initials (perhaps BP?) and a word (the brand-name, I guess), that looks like BINAR_ _.

Skip said:

I found this old spoon at Hill End in NSW
At first glance I thought the symbols were similar.

https://www.prospectingaustralia.co...082538_1569148700_resized_20190922_202721.jpg

https://www.prospectingaustralia.co...082538_1569148740_resized_20190922_202510.jpg

Click to expand...

Hi Skip,
This is an interesting spoon. I don't know if it's just the deterioration or not, but it looks like it's been over-stamped, to disguise the maker's mark initials. This was sometimes done to get out of paying duty taxes on them.

BP is Britannia Plate. I'd say the first three letters are for someone & Son/s. The second letter looks like it has a cross stamped over it. And that centre one looks stamped out with a circle over it. Curious! Interesting spoon!

And it's not like the other one - your one makes sense - the other one doesn't with the 'alien' symbols that don't mean anything as far as marking goes.

Cheers,
Meg

Cheers Meg! yes I haven't seen a spoon with these markings.
I'll have to dive deeper with a little more research.

Skip

Wow, thanks everyone for so much information. Guess I know what I'm doing over lockdown