Found old spoon, is it colonial?

NHDirtShark

Greenie
May 25, 2022
12
65

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NHDirtShark

Greenie
May 25, 2022
12
65
Upvote 3

DCMatt

Gold Member
Oct 12, 2006
10,356
13,478
Herndon Virginia
Detector(s) used
Minelab Equinox 600, EX II, & Musketeer, White's Classic
Primary Interest:
Metal Detecting
That looks very similar for sure.

I can't see any hall marks, but the spoon may have had a silver wash.
Anyway, a great sign of things to come. Crazy that it was right on the surface.
They've made that fiddleback pattern for centuries. You can still buy them today. The base metal looks like copper so it's silver-plate or electroplate making it unlikely to be colonial era. Without any markings it is impossible to know for sure. IMO, as a surface find, that makes it even more unlikely to be colonial era...
 

Upvote 4
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NHDirtShark

Greenie
May 25, 2022
12
65
They've made that fiddleback pattern for centuries. You can still buy them today. The base metal looks like copper so it's silver-plate or electroplate making it unlikely to be colonial era. Without any markings it is impossible to know for sure. IMO, as a surface find, that makes it even more unlikely to be colonial era...

Yeah, good point about it being a surface find.

However, a good sign I suppose that something even this old was just poking out of the ground.
 

Upvote 1

pepperj

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Feb 3, 2009
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Deus, Deus 2, Minelab 3030, E-Trac,
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Relic Hunting
That looks very similar for sure.

I can't see any hall marks, but the spoon may have had a silver wash.
Anyway, a great sign of things to come. Crazy that it was right on the surface.
If you where hunting in cropped fields, yes it could very well be just on the surface.
 

Upvote 1

pepperj

Gold Member
Feb 3, 2009
36,991
136,863
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Detector(s) used
Deus, Deus 2, Minelab 3030, E-Trac,
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They've made that fiddleback pattern for centuries. You can still buy them today. The base metal looks like copper so it's silver-plate or electroplate making it unlikely to be colonial era. Without any markings it is impossible to know for sure. IMO, as a surface find, that makes it even more unlikely to be colonial era...
In a worked field, it's totally possible that the a find as old, or older can be laying there.
 

Upvote 1

Red-Coat

Gold Member
Dec 23, 2019
5,206
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Surrey, UK
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All Treasure Hunting
Cool find, but you can be sure your spoon is not ‘Colonial’ period. It has what is known as a ‘fiddleback’ handle and a bowl with ‘finned’ shoulders. The fiddleback handle originated in France and, around 1800, English makers amalgamated it with Old English Patterns (OEP) which had ‘fins’ on the shoulders of the bowl like yours. American makers began adopting that design during the 1820s-1830s and it was in use for quite some time, but fell out of favour during the Civil War due to metal shortages and the need to conserve materials for the war effort.

I would think the spoon is likely ‘nickel-silver’ (a high-copper base metal alloy with a silvery appearance) which didn’t come into usage until the 1830s as unplated metal and then commonly as the base for electroplate from the 1840s onwards.
 

Upvote 5
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NHDirtShark

Greenie
May 25, 2022
12
65
Cool find, but you can be sure your spoon is not ‘Colonial’ period. It has what is known as a ‘fiddleback’ handle and a bowl with ‘finned’ shoulders. The fiddleback handle originated in France and, around 1800, English makers amalgamated it with Old English Patterns (OEP) which had ‘fins’ on the shoulders of the bowl like yours. American makers began adopting that design during the 1820s-1830s and it was in use for quite some time, but fell out of favour during the Civil War due to metal shortages and the need to conserve materials for the war effort.

I would think the spoon is likely ‘nickel-silver’ (a high-copper base metal alloy with a silvery appearance) which didn’t come into usage until the 1830s as unplated metal and then commonly as the base for electroplate from the 1840s onwards.

Thank you! I think you are spot on.
 

Upvote 2

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