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| Scottish Provincial Dessert Spoon - Charles Torchetti, Aberdeen
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Reference: S1727
Period: George IV
Year: 1825-1840
Silversmith: Charles Torchetti
Place: Aberdeen
Price: $ 360.00
Weight: 26 grams
Dimensions: 18.0cm
Condition: Good, slight kink to stem, small dent to bowl. Has been polished.
Description: A Scottish Provincial silver Fiddle pattern dessert spoon, by a very rare maker, with excellent hallmarks. The spoon is engraved with initial F in contemporary style, a single initial as is often the case in Scotland. The hallmarks are excellent, well struck and very clear, and include makers mark CT, Gothic A, incuse Fleur De Lys, Gothic A, makers mark CT, for Charles Torchetti, who worked in Aberdeen from 1825 until his death in 1840. In the book "Aberdeen Silver" by Michael Wilson, he is described as a "rare maker, with occasional Fiddle pattern spoons and forks". He was described as a picture framer, optician and looking glass maker in the Aberdeen Trade Directory (Wilson pg 34), he worked from Queens Street. Wilson also notes that Alexander Grant used the same Gothic A and incuse Flear De Lys, and that they came from the same punch, so surmises that Torchetti bought spoons from Grant and applied his own makers mark. The provenance of this spoon is also interesting, it has spent the last 40 years as part of a large collection of Cape silver, where it was mistakenly ascribed to Abraham Abrahams, a Malay silversmith who worked circa 1852 (Welz, Cape Silver, pg 127), we assume because of confusion with the Gothic A of Aberdeen. This set of marks can be seen in the book "History of Cape Silver", by David Heller, page 143, makers mark MM.1, incorrectly attributed to Abraham Abrahams (this error later copied by Welz). It is very possible that this spoon was the source of this error, as the style and positioning of the hallmarks is almost identical.
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Scottish Provincial dessert spoon - Charles Torchetti Aberdeen
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Scottish provincial hallmarks - CT, A Fleur de Lys
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Rare Scottish provincial spoon - back
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Scottish provincial spoon - engraved initial
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Charles Torchetti, Aberdeen hallmarks
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Charles Torchetti silver spoon - scale
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