This sterling silver spoon once belonged to my maternal great grandmother, Martha Marie Frederick Stark. Her monogram "MMF" Martha Marie Frederick is clearly engraved on the handle of the spoon. The bowl of the spoon is slightly smaller than the traditional teaspoon and the handle is shorter. My guess is that it was her personal spoon used for afternoon tea. A spoon used for afternoon tea is called a 4 o'clock spoon. 
The sterling mark is prominent on the back handle and three maker's marks. Using the book, Kovel's American Silver Marks 1650 To The Present, by Ralph and Terry Kovel, page 153, as my guide, the three marks together belong to the Gorham Manufacturing Company, Providence, Rhode Island.
Source:
Ralph and Terry Kovel, Kovel's American Silver Marks 1650 To The Present, Crown Publishers, New York, New York, 1961.
© 2010, copyright Linda Hughes Hiser
This is beautiful. I have a few odd pieces that belonged to some of the Ziegler family (or maybe Farrell). Nothing as nice as this.
ReplyDeleteSo pretty! You did a great job capturing all the detail of the spoon.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful spoon and great pictures. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteSo, for some reason, there was a brain cell or two in the back of my head reserved for the fact that the name of this pattern is Gorham Buttercup--I Googled it & found it to be correct. :)
ReplyDeleteI think my sister has this pattern & that's why I recognized it; I'm not THAT much of a girly-girl that I would have known it otherwise! Who knows what other random facts are taking up valuable space in my cranial attic?! LOL
Hi Linda,
ReplyDeleteGot your "thank you" -- you're welcome. Glad to the useless info in my head wasn't so useless after all! :)
Thanks for following my blog! Have added yours too.
Liz