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Antiques! => Antique Questions Forum => Topic started by: Billromigh on August 28, 2011, 05:59:14 PM
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I recently purchased at an auction 6 silver spoons. On the back they are all marked "Baldwin&Cowles". They also have "1836" in a script on the back. On the front they have the initials J.M written in a cursive script. I cannot find any information on these anywhere. Any information would be much appreciated thanks! -Bill
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Would love to help but will need pics of the spoons, Most likely they are silverplate, if not marked sterling or has hallmarks on them. But a pic of the pattern will help, along with the hallmarks.
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I believe these are American. It looks like an American hallmark. I know, not much to go on but it can help narrow it down a bit. I'll get to lookin' up the maker.
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http://www.smpub.com/ubb/Forum19/HTML/000061.html
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The pattern is called Tipped, That pattern was used by pretty much all the silver and silverplate Co. Esp. as Hotel Ware. Have not looked into Co. but I think Hosman is already on that.
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Oh yea and let me add it looks like a Grapefruit spoon.
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I can believe they were american made. might even be relevant to say they were Ohio made. I bought these in Ohio where I live and they had been passed down from a family who had lived all their years in ohio. Thanks so much.
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After reading the forum hosman posted I now have a good idea to who made the spoons. So are these at all collectable? Or worth anything? i still dont know if they are silver or just plated. thank!
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Well if truly they date to the early 1800's they would be sterling for sure, Plate did not really come around until 1847 at the earliest, and really not any great amount until the 1880's. However basically sterling would be marked as such.
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So assuming they are truly from 1836. I can say they are silver. So are they worth anything just because of there age? I cant find any others forsale. And because i cant find others im not sure if this makes them rare or simply not important?
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If they are sterling they would at least be worth about $20.00 in silver alone, if plate well less then $1.00, also this would depend on the maker Balwin&cowle too, which it appears to be rare. All my sterling and Silverplate books does not list Baldwin&Cowle, several other Balwins but not with Cowle. I will have to snoop around a bit more. The problem is without the mark of sterling, They would be considered Plate, because the mark is what buyers will need to prove them as silver.
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Hmm.. is there any physical tests or ways of seeing if they are truly sterling? Any more information about baldwin&cowles would be very much appreciated. Thanks -Bill
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On way is to see if there is any plate loss, many old silverplate has worn spots on the bottom of the Spoon Bowl. Sometimes you have to polish them up to find plate loss, I will have to look at your photo's again, but I didn't notice any plate loss.
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Can we get a shot of the back side of the spoon Bowl?
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back of spoon
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Nope don't see any plate loss there, I did make a bit more head ways on Balwin and Cowle, Nothing on Ebay but the seach is turning up lots about Coin Silver by Baldwin and Cowle. Coin silver is silver made from Coins, a practice used for 100's of years. Basically Coins were melted into silver objects and then they would melt them down for coins when they needed money basically. I think coin silver is a bit less silver in them then Sterling. but all in all if coin silver this spoon would still get you a easy $15.00 in value. I am a bit unsure about if coin silver had to be marked as such, I have a couple of coin silver flatware pieces, but they are marked Coin.
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heres a spoon that was more "roughed" up. Does this look like plate loss or just tarnish cus i have idea between the difference.thanks
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That is Tarnish, Plate loss will show a slight different color of silver much Duller, They are usually made with nickle silver under the silver, and when the plate wears off this is exposed. Let me go dig up a spoon and take a pick of plate loss. BRB
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O.k. here is a shot of a spoon with heavy plate loss on what is call the heel, this is where most flatware will loose it's plate first, because of contact with the table and stacked on top of each other. Also, I think what you have is a coin silver spoon, based on what I have read about Balwin, and I see no loss in plate, Tipped pattern was common around the date on the spoon, and so was the popularity of Coin Silver.
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yeah i can definetely see the difference. I plan on selling these as thats why i bought them. Probably on EBAY. I dont know i i shoulf try to find more info or just start the bid at 15.00x6 and go from there. Oh and do you know any good home polish methods to remove tarnish safely?
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As for Polish, any soft past Silver polish will do well, Right now silver is selling well on ebay, mostly because people will try and buy it for scrape, many cases in hopes the price will go up. They only issue we have is you will have to post them as Coin Silver to get that price, and still without 100% nailing down that they are, you will have to rely on the buyer knowing they are coin silver. But let me go take a look at what coin silver flatware is going for before we can truely say a good start price is $15.00 per.
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From what I can tell $15.00 each would be a excellent starting price, if they are coin silver. thanks for posting such a wonderful thread
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Yeah i wish they would sell to someone who thinks theyr interesting and rare not to see them just melted down. And okay ill wait until you check. Thanks again!
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thanks for your help. im going to be starting a new thread for some china doll heads i also bought. i cant seem to exactly match them up with any other ones. if your knowledgable in that area i would look forward to your posts.
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I have several sterling silver items, that I will not post right now. We are in our 3rd big melt down in the last 100 years right now. This is one reason it is hard to find old sterling silver items. The one before was in the early 80's I remember because all the people on the sides of the road with signs we buy gold and silver, and once again we see this. Kind of sad for sure, but if you are a true dealer in Gold and Silver and care little about the history then now is the time to buy and sell. So for me I'll just wait on my silver until I can sell it to be saved.
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Funny you should mention China dolls, my girlfriend just picked up lots of china dolls at the auction a few hours ago, and we don't know much, but before we are done I'm sure we will.
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I would like to add that the script used for the 1836 does not look like a pattern hallmark, it looks like engraving script, like what was done for the monogram. Pattern numbers are usually in a block font like the name of the silversmith is. I would not be surprised if that is in fact a date, perhaps to commemorate a special occasion like a wedding. It would not make sense for a silversmith to have a pattern number engraved, rather than just stamping it in with his maker's mark.
That said, one problem with monogrammed items is that unless they are from your own family, most people don't want someone elses initials on a piece and they can be hard to sell. Also I don't think this is necessarily a grapefruit spoon since they are serrated at the end of the bowl and they were apparently invented in the 1940's by a guy name Jack Yolles. (further research is needed to see if that info holds water). Although the shape of this one is unusually pointy, I think it is just the style.
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while searching for info on these spoons I came across this forum where they were discussing baldwin and cowles. Maybe some of the more experienced collectors can read these post and see if it will help any. In the first post there is a link to "baldwin and cowles" at the end of the post. If you click on it, it details some info about both the baldwins and the cowles.
http://www.smpub.com/ubb/Forum19/HTML/000514.html
It also mentions that Baldwin went into partnership with Jeremiah McLene, which could be the JM on the spoon??