I didn’t buy a solid gold spoon, right?

So I was on a message board (not this one) and someone asked if anyone had ever found a solid gold flatware service thrifting. The subject of the thread was someone finding a silver service at thrift. I laughed to myself at their naïveté. Then thought I’m sure there is an oligarch or two somewhere that has one. Maybe French royalty or something but I’m sure a complete large service is beyond insanely rare. I however wanted to see what the www had for sale in the way of solid gold flatware and so I searched. There are little bits and pieces here and there. I think one small set for serving fish or dessert or something came up. The most common thing seems to be a two or three piece set for gifting to babies. I gave my niece a silver set when she was born. The kids who get gold are bit luckier. Eventually you get gilt things slipping into your search. The piece I’m presenting was identified as gilt. When I started looking at this little spoon in photos it looked more like just plain gold than gold gilt to me. Gilt flatware has a beautiful gold look but often seems to lack the deep luster of solid gold. This one seems to have that luster. Then I looked at the hallmarks. The crown and fleur de Lis I was unsure of. The rooster mark looked an awful lot like a French 1798-1809 gold mark though. The fleur de lis being well used by the French added possible support to this theory. Of course there is a very real possibility these are just Hanau silver marks on a gilt spoon. However they got me thinking maybe this piece had been misidentified and so I took a low risk gamble and bought it. I expected that when I received it there was a chance I’d look first at the common points of wear and immediately see wear that exposed the silver or other metal below the gold. However there is not one indication on any common wear spot of only a thin layer of gold applied over silver or another metal. All the common wear spots are perfectly golden. Whatever it’s origins this spoon seems to have some legitimate age so I’d expect at least some minuscule sign of worn gilding on an object not housed in a protective case. The only place that looks questionable is the cast animal head on both sides of the spoon. There is plenty of black up there. It could be that the gilding didn’t reach and/or didn’t adhere to the crevices, nooks, crannies, and corners. Conversely it’s possible that the black/dark areas are just an artifact of the casting process that obscured the gold below it rather than where no gold adhered in the first place. I plan to test the piece but I’m curious to hear what others think first. I couldn’t have really bought a solid gold spoon could I have? It’s much more likely that I didn’t than that I did. It’s a neat little salt spoon at a decent price even if it’s just gilt so I’m fine either way. More likely I’m trying to convince myself it’s gold than that it actually is gold. So, what do you think I have? French made solid gold, Hanau gilt silver, something other than either? Are you familiar with these hallmarks?

Also what do you make of my animal? Goat? Kind of funny that we had a silver figural sheep piece recently that may not have actually been sheep at all. Maybe my goat is a chimpanzee. Maybe we will never know what it is.

Also Also where would you scratch this thing on a stone if you owned it? Should it be gilt I want the spot it’s rubbed off to be as inconsequential to the items value as possible. If it is gilt a rubbed spot will be pretty glaring no matter where I do it I feel.

 

Better photos here ...
https://www.ebay.ca/itm/186101959149

 

Looks like a Rooster, a Spider and a Fleur d Lis for marks I see........looks like that's a sheep (or goat??) on the front top of the handle............

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It does look like a goats beard appears more clearly in your image!

 

My guess is Hanau silver with gold vermeil.

 

you, were on another message board............................... faints dead away...

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I couldn't read everything you wrote (ADD etc), but I guess the question is whether it is a French gold spoon or not.

To me it looks very chunky and rough around the edges to be a French ca 1800 gold spoon. Crown and fleur-de-lys marks were favourites of Hanau, and they have been known to use a rooster mark.
So I would say Hanau is likely.

The seller considered Dutch. 19th century Dutch silversmiths also faked marks, but afaik those were 17th-18th century Dutch marks, not ca 1800 French marks.

 

Lol. I know. Treacherous.

 

I did write a lot. You are right it is rough around the edges for French. That didn’t really cross my mind very much except I didn’t like the way the bowl and the handle were joined. If it were French AND gold you’d expect much finer work. I guess you’d expect finer work if it were gold and made anywhere in Europe. Mind clarifying your last sentence? I’m not picking up what you put down.

 

Yes, you would.

I was referring to the title in the link Roaring posted. It said "Antique German or Dutch spoon" etc.
Some 19th century Dutch silversmiths did fake marks, but the marks they faked were 17th-18th century Dutch marks. So this is not a Dutch spoon.

I hope I did better this time.

 

Haha I picked it up this time.