Silver Spoons

[237SJ]

I have some solid silver teaspoons and dessert spoons. They weigh about 12 ounces which is about £120 worth of silver. They have a date and some initials on them. They are 200 years old. Would it be worth selling them for the silver or as antiques?

[Svejk]

Personally, I wouldn't 'scrap' them.
Either hang on to them or investigate auctioning them.

[Svejk]

Personally, I wouldn't 'scrap' them.
Either hang on to them or investigate auctioning them.

[stuey]

Personally, I would hate to see 200 or so years of history melted down. If you do decide to sell them, don't clean them: leave that up to the buyer.

[dannyk13]

There are people who collect spoons so I would approach an auctioneer for advice on selling them.

[SIRandyraven]

Be worth doing some research yourself on them also.

Are the initials of the silver smith ? or first owner ?
What date are they ?

Then check out the silver hall mark for date and where they are from.

Who knows they might be made by a well known maker and worth a lot of money.

Either way - Scrap would be my last option.

[stuey]

That is exactly what I'd do, SIRandyraven. I love researching old "stuff".

[Barmaid]

If you tell us what the marks are or post a pic I will have a look for you. I saw a set of 6 William iv dessert spoons make 130 quid at auction two weeks ago. Insignificant maker too.

[237SJ]

http://i66.tinypic.com/vwzc4z.jpg http://i67.tinypic.com/11wc3l3.jpg http://i67.tinypic.com/34dps2p.jpg http://i65.tinypic.com/2rw42rn.jpg

[237SJ]

Sorry. I forgot to add what I wanted to say. Thanks for the offers of help. Here are some of the hallmarks. I have more pictures which I will add later as tinypic is a bit of a pain - you have to enter the text which is in a box except that there isn`t any so I`m using their audio questions and they are really difficult to hear.

[237SJ]

http://i63.tinypic.com/10psvty.jpg http://i65.tinypic.com/1znyipx.jpg http://i68.tinypic.com/28txij8.jpg http://i64.tinypic.com/e6662x.jpg http://i65.tinypic.com/15xv2pk.jpg

[237SJ]

That`s the dessert spoons. I have one more picture of the hallmark which I`ll post later along with the teaspoons.

[Canary42]

I think that if you sell them as antique at auction, you are more or less guaranteed the price as silver as a minimum. In addition, you may strike lucky and get far more as the "antique" aspect appeals.

Make sure you pick an appropriate auctioneer (.e.g. silver specialist) - especially one who accepts online bidding, for example via http://www.the-saleroom.com/en-gb (I hope this doesn't count as spam - I've used this site myself quite successfully - there are probably others)

[mikey4444]

Why not hang on to them and leave them to your grandchildren ?

Better still....use them ! Its not as if they worth £1000's is it ?

[Samuraisan]

Were you born with one in your mouth. :)

[Barmaid]

Well 237, I think you could be lucky.

My view (and I am by no means an expert - just a hobby collector of silver - mainly table ware and particularly spoons. I have a rather lovely collection of georgian straining spoons).

In my view, these spoons are all Exeter marked. The Exeter assay office ran from 1700 to the late 1800s. It used to assay all silver from the Devon area. However, snobbery meant that provincial silver was thought to be inferior and the office was closed. However that has worked rather in your favour since provincial offices are now very collectable. Some collectors will collect particular assay offices and the ones that no longer exist such as Exeter.

My view is that the hallmarks show:-

1812 Exeter, George Ferris
1807 Exeter, Richard Ferris
1809 Exeter, William Woodman
1858 Exeter, John Stone (he being quite a collected chappy).

My advice is to sell at auction - you have the chance of a collector bidding who will be prepared to pay more than a dealer. I would suggest selling in Exeter. If you are not local, I would suggest going to a GOOD auction house that has regular fine art and silver sales. Someone has already posted the link for the-saleroom.com. I use that myself and can recommend it.

[stuey]

Good work, Barmaid!

[237SJ]

Gosh, thanks Barmaid! Yes, Exeter makes sense as the spoons would have come from my Dad`s family who were in Devon. I think some of the initials on the front might have been the initials of my family (not the MAP ones) but the others. I might post some of the teaspoon pictures when I have taken them (if it`s not too cheeky). I will hold onto them and decide what to do. Thanks again.

[237SJ]

Anyone wanna buy any spoons? :-)

[SIRandyraven]

Good research Barmaid.

Worth a trip to a local reputable auction house and get a valuation.

Hope it all goes well for you.

[237SJ]

Thanks Sir R. I actually think I might donate them to a local museum (in North Devon) or sell some and donate some. I`ll see.