Large spoon

[Markh]

Any help welcome

I have a large spoon that I picked up at a car boot. I'm pretty sure it's silver but not 100%. It has s very nice ping to it.

It's a bit battered. Any way it has no hallmarks on the shaft part. It does have two words... MAW EMBASSY. 

Any ideas to where it comes from. I've tried the Google but no luck.

 

[sixgun]

Put a photo up.
Perhaps it was stolen from an embassy. 

[Murph]

Malawi embassy?

[Markh]

31 minutes ago, Murph said:

Malawi embassy?

You could be onto something there the man who I got it from was a elderly black guy.

The spoon is a lovely colour like a Matt silver. I'll dig it out and take a photo.

[Markh]

The spoon is a bit rough, but the curiosity is too much.

[sixgun]

Well what i see here is M&W - this makes me think of Mappin and Webb.

i see England - so if this is silver where are the silver hallmarks? - it's not silver. Are we looking at Mappin and Webb electroplate? 

The central element is Embassy and maybe Plaza.

There is an Embassy Plaza hotel - it isn't in England though.  We do see England but we don't have silver hallmarks. 

 

[Markh]

27 minutes ago, sixgun said:

Well what i see here is M&W - this makes me think of Mappin and Webb.

i see England - so if this is silver where are the silver hallmarks? - it's not silver. Are we looking at Mappin and Webb electroplate? 

The central element is Embassy and maybe Plaza.

There is an Embassy Plaza hotel - it isn't in England though.  We do see England but we don't have silver hallmarks. 

 

I think it does say plaza. I don't believe it is silver plate, I've done deep scratches and the metal is consistent deep down. Is silver plate normally on copper. There's a p in a circle any ideas. Interesting about Mappin and web.

[Goldhooked]

I think it says embassy plate which according to the following page is another name used for silver plate - http://www.silvercollection.it/AMERICANSILVERPLATEMARKSCDE.html

Nearer the bottom it says...

"E.P.N.S. (Electroplated Nickel Silver) and EPBM (Electroplated Britannia Metal) are the most common names attributed to silver plate items. But many other names are used for silver plate:
<snip>

Embassy Plate"

 

[sixgun]

1 hour ago, Markh said:

I think it does say plaza. I don't believe it is silver plate, I've done deep scratches and the metal is consistent deep down. Is silver plate normally on copper. There's a p in a circle any ideas. Interesting about Mappin and web.

I agree the end mark is a P inside a circle. Where is the assay office mark?

Why make a spoon and not mark it as silver? If the spoon were sold into the UK as silver, it would be illegal not to be hallmarked. There are no silver hallmarks.

Let's say it was not sold into the UK, despite having 'England' stamped into it. Again why would the piece not be marked 'silver'?

If you were concerned the item would be stolen if it were marked as silver, then why have the spoon made of silver in the first place?

We may get some other ideas posted but all the alternatives say to me that the spoon is not silver.

[Goldhooked]

Lots of other embassy plate stuff on eBay.  It's definitely silver plated.

[Markh]

Thank guy's.

Guess I got a £2.50 dud. Well next time I'm taking a magnet. LOL

 

[Pipers]

It's not silver,

You will need to know your hallmarks if you  are going to buy antique silver including European marks, plus you will need to know weight for age of and manufacturing methods as their are a lot of hallmark take out there that are silver but are not as old as they state.

Some plated antiques are worth quite a lot of money!

[Markh]

Advice noted.

In the local charity shop there are often spoons. I buy the ones I definitely know are Silver... the lion hallmark. I stay away from the foreign hallmarks as I am not experience enough. I find it a good way to get silver way under spot price. But this is getting harder as even the charity shops are getting wise. A1 hallmarks I know are plate.