The LordMarcovan Spoon!

asheland · November 1, 2015 1:37PM

Friday evening was the darkside gathering at the Swoveland Library. It was awesome as usual. I was surprised to find out that gifts were being given by Lord Marcovan! Among several books and different small gifts, I was surprised to see this spoon in the gift bag.

Knowing that my primary collecting interest is antique silver, he presented me with this sterling silver teaspoon that was his grandmother's! I instantly recognized the pattern as Love Disarmed by Reed & Barton! For anyone who knows silver patterns, this is a superb Art Noveau pattern and is very desirable.

I wanted to share the spoon with the forum and publicly thank Lord Marcovan for this awesome gift! Thank you sir!

Along with Lord Marovan, Aethelred and Savoyspecial were there! All are great friends indeed!

I only shot the handle as that's where the main decoration is:

asheland · November 1, 2015 1:41PM

I had this written as a proper paragraph and it crammed it all together.

Sorry about that.

bronzemat · November 1, 2015 1:49PM

That is a beauty!

asheland · November 1, 2015 1:50PM

Thank you!

Zohar · November 1, 2015 2:07PM

That evening must have been good fun all around. Very nice.

Swampboy · November 1, 2015 2:24PM

Just lovely

What an awesome gift

asheland · November 1, 2015 2:33PM

Very fun indeed, Zohar!

Thanks Swampboy! I was speechless when I saw it!

nicholasz219 · November 1, 2015 2:51PM

Aw, man that is awesome. You know, LM really goes out of his way to be generous for no reason and always above and beyond what anyone would expect. He sent me some great sharks' teeth for Fiona because she is interested in fossils and cool stuff in general about a year ago that she still shows off to people when she shows our collection off.

Hear hear for LM!

PS-I am jealous I do not get to come to those meetings.

Tibor · November 1, 2015 3:15PM

Very nice!! This shows that when LM gives a gift, it not only comes with a lot

of thought, it also comes from the heart. Well done!!

lordmarcovan · November 1, 2015 5:14PM

I'm really glad the "Nekkid Lady Spoon" (for so I dubbed it when I was a teenager) was a hit.

For some reason my family continued to eat off our heirloom Sterling flatware long after many discontinued the practice and sent theirs off to the smelter. It was always an eclectic, mismatched bunch of stuff. (See any parallels with my coin collecting there?) My stepmother is an art teacher so the eclectic tableware was not only an aesthetic sort of collage but more fun than a matched set, I think. She not only let me purloin the Nekkid Lady Spoon but also wrapped it up for Terry in a pretty cloth bag that had some beaded decoration and actually smelled nice, too.

I wasn't sure if this piece had descended from my paternal grandmother (Shinnick), her family (Norton), or my stepmother's family (Cook).

When Terry took it out of the bag, we discovered the initials "AEB" on the back of the handle of this spoon in hand-engraved Victorian script. I had some ancestors with the surname Black some three or four generations back, so maybe this is a relic of the Black family silver. Dad didn't even know he and my stepmother Joan had his spoon and referred me to Joan when I asked about it, but he may know who "A.E.B." was. I can also try to sleuth out AEB in the paperwork I printed when I briefly had an Ancestry.com account.

Of course there's always the possibility that my stepmother bought the spoon 30-40 years ago because the lovely Art Nouveau maiden on it appealed to her artistic sensibilities. But I do think it had been in my family longer than that.

If this spoon indeed came from a Black family forebear, it would've been a great- or great-great grandmother's, though it likely did come down through my paternal grandmother (Jean Shinnick, nee Norton, 1911-1980, who was also an artist.)

lordmarcovan · November 1, 2015 5:40PM

PS- Terry- this pattern was first issued in 1899, yes?

All of my silver collecting has been confined to coins, but I do think this artistic old flatware is neat.

It isn't easy to find a suitable gift for someone who collects in a different field I know nothing about, so I hoped this piece would be a hit (i.e., nice enough to be appreciated without being so rare as to accidentally give away something worth a fortune). I'm very gratified that this seems to have hit that happy middle ground despite my lack of knowledge.

ajaan · November 1, 2015 9:27PM

when I first read the title I had a very disturbing image in my mind

glad to see it was a different type of spoon

edit :I hate this no spaces between lines new software

Aethelred · November 1, 2015 10:38PM

Terry - Great post

Don - Eww!

asheland · November 2, 2015 1:46AM

asheland · November 2, 2015 1:49AM

Rob, yes indeed the pattern came out in 1899 and from what I understand, this spoon is from the first run. I am guessing it was made between 1899-1910? Possibly as late as 1920, but that's likely the latest it could possibly be. I feel safe calling it Edward VII period.

Thanks again for the lovely spoon! And thanks everybody for the comments!

trozau · November 2, 2015 5:07AM

Sweet! I think folks eating with that silver ware pattern would be be too distracted to concentrate on their meal.

lordmarcovan · November 2, 2015 7:11AM

Originally posted by: trozau

Sweet! I think folks eating with that silver ware pattern would be be too distracted to concentrate on their meal.

When I was a teenager and had friends over to the house, we'd all try to be the one who got the Nekkid Lady Spoon and whoever got her would fondle the handle lasciviously.

(Hey... typical teenage boys. What can I say.)

That's why I thought she'd be more worn by now. Was surprised to see the spoon again after many years, and see that it was in fact in pretty nice shape.

I think there was another one (of a slightly different pattern, maybe) that was pretty worn.

Oh- I just called stepmother Joan to thank her for the spoon. I asked her who she thought "AEB" was. She confirmed my thoughts that the initials stood for Adele Black, who was my great-grandmother, I believe. Joan thought her middle initial "E" was for Eddy, as in "Adele Eddy Black". She was supposedly related to Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of the Christian Science movement. I still haven't found my geneaology paperwork to confirm any of this or pin her life dates down.

PatAR · November 2, 2015 10:39AM

What a beautiful spoon! And what sounds like an awesome gathering of coin folks! That's what its all about.

Type2 · November 2, 2015 2:31PM

Very cool lets see the rev....

asheland · November 3, 2015 12:23AM

Oh- I just called stepmother Joan to thank her for the spoon. I asked her who she thought "AEB" was. She confirmed my thoughts that the initials stood for Adele Black, who was my great-grandmother, I believe. Joan thought her middle initial "E" was for Eddy, as in "Adele Eddy Black". She was supposedly related to Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of the Christian Science movement. I still haven't found my geneaology paperwork to confirm any of this or pin her life dates down.

Thanks for that info, Rob!

It's nice to have that history to go with this piece!

Tookybandit · November 3, 2015 9:15PM

Hubba hubba!

The LordMarcovan Spoon!

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