Featured Old Dutch? Spoon

I believe this is likely Dutch. There were some very old Dutch items in a lot I bought that this came in. Nicely gilt, I assume it’s silver under the gilding. 18th century? I think it’s Cheryl that’s good with Dutch silver? Any help appreciated as always. The mark looks like IN maybe or NI?
Edit: mark may be a Z. Depends how you look at it.

 

Beautiful spoon, J.

If it is Dutch it is probably not a Z, Dutch are not in the habit of crossing Zs. So your initial thought of NI or IN is correct imo.

I couldn't find this specific mark.
Unfortunately a lot of 17th and 18th century Dutch silver doesn't bear assay, town, or year marks, which makes research difficult.
NI/IN would be the maker's mark. IG was probably the owner. In both cases the I could stand for a J.

Cheryl is good with all silver, and she collects spoons.
Tagging @DragonflyWink .

 

Eh - just junk, will gladly take it off your hands and dispose of it properly (seriously, bit of spoon envy here). Although ball knop spoons were certainly made elsewhere, this one is most likely Scandinavian, probably Norwegian - could be late 16th century, but similar were made well into the 17th, and were also produced later as a historical style (often with dates that suggested earlier manufacture). In Norwegian, it's a 'kuleskje' (ball spoon), and everything about it looks good, though the majority have twist stems (other form finials also found), the acanthus motif engraving in the bowl and leaves on the stem, even the fancy shield cartouche on the maker's mark (I also read it as 'IN' or 'NI') are found on kuleskje - the scratched mark under the 'IG' owner's mark is likely a 'bomerke' (house mark), a symbol used to mark the property of a household/family, I've run across them a few other times on old Nordic silver.

Sorry, no time right now to do any research, and there's a good chance the maker is unknown - you might want to present it on the 925-1000 forums...


A 2012 auction catalog showing Scandinavian spoons, most with marks shown, on pages 100-107:

https://issuu.com/jammdesign/docs/ww102-158_silver/106


~Cheryl

 

Thanks I was thinking same re: I/J. The single mark definitely doesn’t help on the research front!!

 

Glad it’s one to be worthy of envy! I was speculating that it could be earlier than 18th but I was also well aware of the reproductions on some of these types of spoons you mentioned. I also didn’t want to get ahead of myself! I think a lot of the repros were even made in the 19th century which makes them trickier to pick out for the novice which I am just a bit above. Actually a couple such spoons (with dates and all) came in this lot and I’m unsure of them. They have some very specific inscriptions so that combined with the overall quality of the collection leads me to believe they are probably real. I have a handful of others though that I’m much less sure of. I figured the IG was the owners and the scratched mark below it either the next owners or like you said house mark or similar. Your knowledge is very helpful on this one. It’s a first for me. I had never even heard the kuleskje terminology. I wouldn’t know the next research step to take without a push in the right direction. Should it become a nuisance and clutter I’ll know where to send it!

 

Very helpful link too! The others I have are like the examples in lot #911. Those are the ones I specifically think were reproduced quite a bit right?