Featured Help with 1700s spoons!

So I had a haul of some 1700s spoons today and honestly if I can identify at least 2 of them I'd Be happy.

These first ones came in a set of 3. From what I can tell online they are from Dublin, Ireland. However, the date mark is missing..... of course. Also, the maker seems to be conflicted between 3 names. John Laughlin Senior: 1745-1774, John Lloyd Senior: 1768-1821, John Locker: 1758-1825. They also each have a family crest? on the back, I really can't tell what it is?

This little one seems to be English but only has these 2 marks! No idea on this one.

This one bears the Dublin marks again but the maker mark is worn in oblivion. I can somewhat make out a curve? Possibly a C?

This one is English as well with only 2 marks. The worn mark is the lion, hard to tell from the pictures.

 

Phew....I thought you needed help with seventeen hundred spoons..!

 

Family crest I don't think so,its an "arm and a leg".

 

I can't find a family name crest with an ' armstrong' ( A Dexter Arm In Armour Embowed ) ...holding a leg ...????

maybe here...Fairbairn's Book of Crests, 1905 ed......?

 

They also each have a family crest? on the back,

At the time, that was the front. Up until the later 18th C., spoons and forks were laid 'face down' rather than the way we lay them now, I have no idea why, and why it changed, but with later flatware you will see the crest on the business side. The early terminals bend the other way as well.
It is pretty easy to spot an early spoon at a distance.

The last maker appears to be WC, possibly too early for William Chawner a 'prolific spoon maker'.

 

maybe to keep them clean ....ready for use.
At the time...powder from the wigs may have fallen in the bowl....

 

Most likely the crest belongs to branches of the Ormesby/Ormsby family, though Fairbairn's also shows it for a member of the Armstrong family: https://www.myfamilysilver.com/pages/crestfinder-crest.aspx?id=178583&name=Ormsby

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ormsby_(surname)

~Cheryl

 

Reeves and Turner's 'Family Crests' (1882), shows it only for Ormesby/Ormsby:



~Cheryl

 

Thank you for the crest!! As per the 925 forum the little spoons are more than likely unidentifiable and the big spoons really are any of the 3 makers. Darn! The good piece of info is that the harp mark on the bigger pieces are for pre 1786

 

Heh, personally, have little luck reading those squished marks on bottom-marked British silver, but the fact that they are bottom-marked (marks located on the thin part of the stem, requiring that it be hammered back into shape after stamping) also indicates dating prior to the 1790s. Not unusual for spoons to lack full marks...

~Cheryl

 

I think the crest is for the Armstrong family, Sir Richard Armstrong, knight of Lincoln. Try coadb.com, Blazons and Geneology notes, no 3. "The hand of the crest holding a leg coupled at the thigh". There are a lot of links on the website for acsilver.co.uk, jewellers in Newcastle on Tyne, UK
for anyone researching silver etc.

 

I'd call it an armorial rather than a full crest.

 

Re my previous post, that should read couped(cut) at the thigh. Darned autocheck.

 

As I said, it is shown in Fairbairn's as used by an Armstrong, as well as Ormesby/Ormsby, but other references also show it as used by several branches of the Ormesby/Ormsby family, don't believe there is any way to pin it down beyond that...

~Cheryl

 

I dont know if you guys could see it but the big spoons have the initials T.O so Ormsby could very well be correct