Spoon - Before and After

[Curious The George]

Back in October 2009 I was hunting with a friend in a city park. Research later showed that there was a home site or two on the land the park now sits on.

I got a decent silver signal right by a sidewalk and thought I had found a deep silver coin that would turn out to be something decent. All the coin finds up till then had been clad on the surface and this signal was showing an 8" depth.

Below you see the result. There are as dug photos, I didn't bend it digging, it was found that way. I sent it off to a silversmith for repair and it came back yesterday. The silversmith's restoration has turned out quite better than I had thought it would. The spoon is made of coin silver, hence the coin signal I got on my machine. There is what looks like a very faint "A" engraved on the handle that doesn't show in the photos, possibly the initial of the original owners.

A little research on the W & B silver maker's hallmark turned up the following. The spoon was made in the shop of Ward & Bartholomew - James Ward and Roswell Bartholomew. They worked in Hartford, Conn and the mark was only used from 1804 till 1809. A 200 year old teaspoon!

I have pondered what took place that caused that spoon to be in the ground inches from a paved sidewalk and 15 feet from a main traveled road. How fortunate is it that it wasn't paved over and lost forever. There is quite a satisfaction in recovering something like this, a 200 year old teaspoon! How often did the family use it before it ended up buried in the dirt? And, did one of the family children sneak out mothers fine coin sliver spoon to do a little digging in the dirt? Bend the spoon in the process? Then he or she was too ashamed to bring it back to the house to show mother what had been done?

I have held off posting this waiting for the restoration to come back so the story would be complete.

[rogues71]

great looking spoon

[spartacus53]

That is one nice looking find I too have often wondered about the origin of an interesting find, as it would be nice to know the history behind the piece. If only the items could talk, the stories they would tell.

[incajoe]

Interesting! It's always fun to see a before and after comparison when there is restoration done. Can I ask you what it cost?

[Iron Patch]

Being that old makes you think huh. I just found out a gold ring I dug about 7 years ago dates 1802. Not too often can we date non coin and button finds so well.

[Curious The George]

Interesting! It's always fun to see a before and after comparison when there is restoration done. Can I ask you what it cost?

I found a silversmith that advertised the restoration of silver table ware that gets dropped into garbage disposal units and damaged. His fee was $35 plus $5 postage.

[Detectingfreak]

Nice job on restoring the spoon!

[extractor]

good restoration

[Hardy]

Great Burnishing Job

[MUD(S.W.A.T)]

Hello,

Wow, Spoon looks great ! Can you post more pictures of the fixed spoon. Like side view or a shot of the bowl. I'd love to see some more of it.

Keep @ it and HH !!

[Curious The George]

Hello,

Wow, Spoon looks great ! Can you post more pictures of the fixed spoon. Like side view or a shot of the bowl. I'd love to see some more of it.

Keep @ it and HH !!

Not ignoring your request. Just want to get out hunting and will be back with more photos later. Thanks for the good words and asking.

[Kanyontreasures]

oooooh ahhhhhhh that is a beauty!! i wanna find a silver spoon!!