Expert: Martin G Roberts - 1/30/2009

Question
QUESTION: I have a spoon I have been trying to find informaion on.  The University of Missouri Arch. Dept. thinks it is one of a kind. It appears to be pewter as it is very dark from age and where it has rubbed in storing, it is very bright.

Any information would be greatly appreciated.


Any help would be appreciated.

ANSWER: -

Hello Mary Sue,

This spoon may well be pewter - it does look to be pewter, but I cannot confirm it with certainty from a photo.

However, it is not an old piece. I have seen only a photo of the marks, not of the overall spoon, but on the basis of what I can see, I would say it was not more than 50 years old.

Any patination is artificial. The form of the part I can see is not found on any known historic spoon type.

Hope that helps.

Martin
www.antique-metalware.co.uk

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: I have attached a picture of the front of the spoon. I bought this from an estate sale of a very old lady. What do you mean the patination is artifcial?  You mean people make something this intrique and detailed and it isn't real, it is a fake?

Answer
-

Hello Mary Sue,

When freshly cast, pewter is bright and shiny. The surface will gently dull down with age, and a good antique patina can take hundreds of years to develop. People's expectations of pewter, at least for much of the 20th Century in most parts of Europe and amongst collectors of British and European pewter in North America, are that it will have that mellow patina. So some pewter that manufactured in the 20th Century was treated to simulate that patina.

In fact it is quite easy to give pewter a dull surface by dipping it in certain compounds. This generally will produce a uniform and rather flat grey surface, not like a genuine antique patina.

Your spoon has exactly that flat, uniform grey surface of an artificial patina. But that does not mean it is fake. In fact this spoon does not copy any antique style - it is a decorative product of the mid 20th Century, and would have been retailed as such when first offered for sale. It was never intended to be used, and it shows no signs that I can detect of having been used.

You mention the intricacy of the design - this intricacy is another point counting against this spoon having any significant age. Genuine antique spoons are functional utensils, and mostly of simple design. Sometimes they have small decorative flourishes, and some very rare spoons of the late 17th Century have quite a lot of decoration on the stem and the back of the bowl. But these rare decorated spoons are of a distinctive form known as 'trefid', not at all like your spoon, and they bear decorative schemes quite different to your spoon.

Hope that helps.

Martin
www.antique-metalware.co.uk