The first spoon has a pear shaped bowl with a stippled finish front and back, the handle elaborately cast with grape berries and leaves and the reverse stamped ‘SILVER’. (It has been tested as 800 silver.) The design was popular with Victorian silversmiths in England, for example Henry Holland, and later taken up by some of the American manufacturers such as Watson Company. The stipple effect suggests early twentieth century work and the simple marking ‘SILVER’ could indicate an American provenance which would then be consistent with the history of the production of spoons of this type.

The second spoon also has a pear shape bowl but with a standard polished finish, the handle with an elaborately cast design of stylised scrolling foliage and the reverse with impressed marks (i) a seagull (ii) ‘STERLING’ (iii) ‘MYLIUS NORWAY’. The seagull was the mark used to denote the Norwegian silversmiths Brodrene Mylius (‘Mylius Brothers’) based in Kragerø and founded in 1934. The design of the handle was known as the ‘Tele’ pattern and was first produced by the firm in the 1930s but continued in production until the 1970s. The format of the marks on this spoon suggests the later dating, perhaps to the 1950s. The ‘tele’ pattern enjoyed great popularity and this is an excellent example in a shape which is slightly less commonly found.