Posts Tagged ‘fakes’

Art Deco Glass
After a decline at the end of the Art Nouveau period, art glass became popular once again during the inter-war years. France was the leader in design and innovation, with the prolific Rene Lalique being the foremost glassmaker in the Art Deco style. Functional pieces were very often turned to purely decorative purposes, and Lalique’s moulded, opalescent, or frosted glass,
ranging from vases to architectural panels, spawned a gre many imitators. In the USA the Steuben Glass Works produce fine engraved stemware. Moulded glass was usually max produced and sometimes hand-finished; makers also used such techniques as enamelling and engraving to embellish glass -will the fashionable stylized motifs of the era.
Lalique, Daum, and Marinot Glass
European industrial decorative-glass manufacturers of the Art Deco period, most of which operated in France or Bohemia, were primarily influenced by the work of Rene Lalique ( 1860-1945). Many chose to copy his style and techniques, making clear or opalescent glass vessels and statuary with a frosted finish. The wealth of output provides a wide range of choice for collectors, and many focus on only one category, or even on one colour or motif. The present-day market is similarly led by Lalique prices, and most glass by other manufacturers, found throughout Europe, North America, and beyond, rarely rises above decorative value.
RENE LALIQUE Glass
Lalique began glassmaking in 1910, having already established a successful career as the leading jeweller of the Art Nouveau period, and in 1921 took over a large glassworks at Wingen-sur-Moder in Alsace to produce his designs. He was a prolific designer, and made an enormous variety of items, ranging from , and tablewares to clocks, lighting, and architectural panels. Most of his work was machine-made to a high standard. Lalique relied on metal moulds for casting or mould-blowing glass, and many items, particularly panels and larger vessels, show evidence of “chill marks”, or ripples, on the surface. Mould seams were often left, or only partially polished off. Certain objects, including vases, were made by Lalique himself (rather than by the workshop) using the cire perdue (lost-wax) technique. Since the mould has to be broken in order to retrieve the glass, each cire perdue cast is unique, and such items are highly collectable.
The majority of Lalique wares, and virtually all architectural panels, lighting, and table glass, are clear with a frosted or partially frosted surface. Opalescent glass was also used. Some vases were produced in colours, including amber, electric blue, and black, and these command
premium prices. Lalique created various forms of lighting, often in inventive shapes or containing geometric or figural decoration. Clear or opalescent light bowls are generally more desirable than those of a Yellow colour. Lalique designed several hundred perfume bottles, the rarest and best of which are as valuable as some coloured vases. Other categories of collectable interest include the range of 27 automobile-hood ornaments (car mascots), made from 1925 to 1932, boxes, inkwells, ashtrays, and letter seals.
THE INFLUENCE OF LALIQUE GLASS
Marius-Ernest Sabino (1878-1961) produced a wide range of vases, statuary, and lighting from c.1923 until the closure of his glassworks in 1939. Much of his work clearl displays the influence of Lalique; however, few examples are as finely executed as Lalique wares, nor were Sabino’s designs as imaginative. The best examples are in deep, opalescent glass of milky blue. Most popular are the highly stylized figures of women, while coloured vases, mostly black or smoky topaz, have a limited following. Sabino also
produced car mascots, often copies of designs by Lalique. Reproductions of Sabino’s wares using the Original moulds have been made since the 1960x.
Edmond Etling &- Cie (active 1920x-1930x) commissioned moulded opalescent glass, comparable in standards of design and manufacture to Sabino. Figures of draped female nudes produced during the mid-1920s, often in a pale-bluish tint, are especially collectable, with values rivalling Sabino and lesser Lalique. Other typical subjects were animals and ships, and some vases were also produced.
Other French glassmakers in Lalique style include the firm of Verlys, which operated in France and the USA; Andre Hunebelle, who specialized in lighting and frosted vases of geometric design; and the firm of Genet & Michon, makers of innovative lighting, frosted architectural panels, and vases. A large variety of frosted glass, geometric-patterned
glass geometric-patte lampshades, and hanging lights is reproduced today and can be found at reasonable cost.
DAUM GLASS
The factory operated by the Daum family in Nancy from 1875 to the present day produced some of the best and most distinctive French Art Deco glass of the late 1920s and early 1930s. Daum Specialized in artistic Art Nouveau overlay and etched glass until the
1920s, but introduced new lines in the Art Deco style before 1930, mostly under the direction of Paul Daum. The two most characteristic types of Art Deco Daum glass are the mottled and the acid-etched lines.
Mottled glass was usually of amber colour, often with golden metallic inclusions, and was used for vases and some lamps (which are far more desirable than vessels), blown into heavy metal armatures. The typical wrought-iron metalwork may be signed “Edgar Brandt” or attributable to the firm of Louis Majorelle 1859-1926) in Nancy. Daum glass of this type is relatively low in value as pieces tend to be cumbersome and a little sombre.
Vases, bowls, and table-lamps in heavy, thick-walled, vividly coloured glass with deeply acid-etched decoration are the most collectable Art Deco Daum. Colours include green, amethyst, amber, turquoise, and grey; monumental vases in “electric” colours, particularly bright blue and vibrant yellow, are highly sought after. Matt and polished surfaces were sometimes combined. Value is directly in proportion to the depth and complexity of the etched decoration; vessels with shallow, sparse decoration tend to be of later origin and are relatively inexpensive. Pale colours and a smoky grey arc also indicative of late origin (possibly post-World War II). Table-lamps are usually in thick, clear glass with a frosted or grainy surface texture and vertically etched grooves forming a geometric, abstract pattern. Lampshades are bullet-shaped (the more popular) or mushroom-shaped. Any authentic Daum etched table-lamp is of considerable value, particularly if it is of large scale. A few- shades of similar style were also made, but are generally less popular than lamps.
MAURICE MARINOT GLASS
Maurice Marinot (1882-1960) was a painter and glass artist who worked largely independently from c.1911. This glass was not mass-produced and is rarely found on the market; however, it is easily identifiable and widely collected, particularly in Europe. Marinot created mostly functional pieces such as vases, jugs, and bowls, often of abstract, sculptural form, and experimented with decorative techniques such as trapping bubbles or metal foil within thick, heavy walls of glass. Between c.1915 and 1918 Marinot made enamelled glass, which is somewhat less collectable than his later work and consists mainly of pale-coloured or bubbly vases and decanters painted with Art Deco-style flora, fauna, or figures in bright polychrome enamel. Later, internally decorated pieces are often in the form of stoppered bottles (the stopper may be a glass sphere), free-blown in thick, clear glass decorated with bubbling, inclusions, and streaks of colour, and sometimes deeply etched with geometric or figural patterns.
Rene Lalique
• TYPES before 1930: clear glass with partially frosted finish is most common; after 1930: almost all frosted and clear; some pale opalescent and pale yellow/amber colour; designs remained in production after Lalique’s death, when a new crystal glass N as used
• ALTERATIONS authentic but altered pieces of Lalique include vases with ground necks, perfume bottles with “married” stoppers, and opaque vases with “plugged” bases; all designs are recorded in a catalogue raisonne
• FAKES mostly inferior and of poor quality with signatures added; beware of post-war Lalique with the pre-war signature added
Marius-Ernst Sabino
• TYPES opalescent glass using typical Art Deco motifs
• REPRODUCTIONS since the 1960s old moulds have been used to make certain items; the opalescence is more intense than on the originals and map appear “oily-
• COLLECTING large, stylized female figures are the most popular
Etling & Cie
• TYPES most pieces are in opalescent glass, comparable in standard to Sabino
• COLLECTING figures of draped female nudes produced during the mid-1920s 920s are especially collectable; values rival Sabino and lesser Lalique; reproductions in frosted glass were made in France in the 1970s
Marks
Opalescent glass is marked with the name, usually with “France” or “Paris” added
Daum
• TYPES most characteristic are mottled and acid-etched
• FAKES these exist as similar but ulterior pieces, including table-lamps, that appear to be acid-etched hut can be identified as moulded on close inspection
• COLLECTING monumental vases in “electric” colours
with deeply acid-etched decoration are preferred; metal armatures are often cracked and should be inspected
carefully;depth, quality,and complexity of decoration Lire vital for determining value – vessels with shallow, sparse decoration tend to be of later origin and have little value; pale colours and a smoky grey are indicative of later origin (possibly post-World War II)
Maurice Marinot
• TYPES handmade, small-scale items with heavy, thick-walled glass arc most typical; much of Marinot’s work is internally decorated or enamelled
• COLLECTING work is rare and consequently expensive
Marks
All pieces are engraved with the Marinot signature
Other French makers
ARGY-ROUSSEAU AND DECORCHEMONT
The style of the pate-de-verre (glass paste) specialists Gabriel Argy-Rousseau (1885-1953) and Francois-Emile Decorchemont (1880-1971) evolved from the Art Nouveau to the Art Deco during the 1920s. Argy-Rousseau produced vases decorated with stylized figures or geometric patterns in rich colours, together with table-lamps (the most valuable of all Art Deco pate-de-verre), plaques, and some translucent pate-de-cristal vessels. Popular Argy-Rousseau Vases were produced in large numbers, each one being hand-finished; motifs included Egyptian and mythological subjects. The output of Decorchemont, whose work is less collectable than that of Argy-Rousseau, is mainly in pate-de-cristal, often of bluish tone. Small vessels of Neo-classical form are typical. External decoration is subtle, and may be in the form of geometric engraving.
GOUPY AND HEILIGENSTEIN
Working from his Paris studio between 1918 and c.1936, Marcel Goupy (1886-1954) designed glass and ceramics sold mostly through the gallery of Georges Rouard in Paris. Goupy glass includes thin-walled vases, decanters, and goblets in clear or pale monochrome glass, painted with stylized flora, fauna, or figural decoration in semi-matt polychrome enamels. Auguste-Claude Heiligenstein (1891-1976) was an assistant to Goupy at Rouard from 1919 until 1926; he produced enamelled glass for several firms and independent commissions until the mid-1930s. Heiligenstein specialized in figural decoration, often featuring Neo-classical women in translucent enamels. Colours are naturalistic, often predominantly bluish and sometimes edged in gilt. Forms include vases, decanters, and pendants.
Other French Art Deco glass artists who used enamel decoration include Andre Delatte, who worked near Nancy in the 1920s and made mostly vases in opaque, bright colours. In his best pieces the decoration combines etching overlay with polychrome enamel painting. The firm of Muller Freres (est. 1895) in Luneville made speckled glass comparable to Daum c.1930, which may be fixed with metal armatures. The most valuable glass of this type was used for a series of lamps in the form of animals.
LESSER-KNOWN MAKERS
French Art Deco glass by small or lesser-known makers is widely available and varies greatly in quality. The unique, deeply acid-etched sculptural work of Aristide Colotte (1885-1959) in clear crystal ranks among the highest achievements in Art Deco decorative glass, but not widely collected. Similarly, the strikingly Modernists geometric glass desk items designed by Jean Luce (1895-1964) arc not greatly sought after, despite the practicality. Luce also designed glass for the ocean liners of the Compagnie Generale Transatlantique
(C.G.T.). Other Art Deco glass includes the
popular range of vases, lamps, and other wares
produced by Charles Schneider (1881-1953) from
c.1918 until the early 1930s. Most is of mottled.
bubbly glass mould-blown into heavily walled
vases and bowls. Vessels of this type, which may have applied feet or handles of contrasting colour, are common and of relatively little value. Schneider produced vases and a few table-lamps as “Lc Verre Francais”, typically in overlay glass etched with Art Deco decoration.
Argy-Rousseau and Decorchement
• WARES before c.1920: mostly small, Art Nouveau pieces, including jewellery and ashtrays; after c. 1920: larger items, including vases, in a more symmetrical style
• CONVERSIONS attention should be paid to large vases,
which may have been drilled for lamp attachments
• RESTORATION this may be visible on heavy, opaque pieces through transmitted light, and reduces value
• COLLECTING rich, deep colours and well-defined decoration are most desirable; heavier vases are popular
Goupy and Heiligenstein
• DECORATION polychrome enamelling
• COLLECTING Goupy: large-scale works and figural work are his most collectable pieces
Marks
Goupy: enamel or gilt script in the design or on underside of foot; Heiligenstein: most have an enamel or gilt signature, dates, and title of decoration
Lesser-known makers
• COLLECTING Luce: desk items arc popular with Art Deco collectors; Schneider: mould-blown vessels are common and of relatively little value; large pieces, geometric forms, lamps, and pieces with applied elements are the more valuable Schneider wares

Most American glass made during the inter-war years was in traditional style and of press-moulded manufacture, but inexpensive interpretations of French glass, particularly that of Rene Lalique (1860-1945), were popular during the early 1930x. American glass of this period is rarely found outside the USA, as it was not exported; a thriving network of American-glass collectors exists, but there is virtually no interest in this type of Art Deco glass elsewhere in the world.
STEUBEN GLASS
Steuben Glassworks (est. 1903) was founded in Corning, New York, by the Englishman Frederick Carder (1864-1963). Steuben is the most prestigious and highly regarded American glassmaker, partly owing to its elegant and distinctive work in the Art Deco style.
Before 1933 Carder designed much of Steuben’s ware himself; after that date most Steuben Art Deco glass was designed by John Monteith Gates (6.1905) or
Sidney Waugh (1904-63), who worked almost exclusively in clear crystal. Steuben glass is not Modernist or avant-garde; vase forms are typically restrained, often of Neo-classical or Chinese inspiration. Engraved decoration is impressive, comparable to that of contemporary glass made by the Swedish firm of Orrefors (est. 1898). Much of the engraving is figural, featuring slender forms with subtle, geometric stylization. During the late 1930s and 1940s Steuben also produced a range of heavy, cast, clear crystal animals, some in geometric Art Deco designs, for use as bookends and paperweights; these are highly collectable today. Decanters, often with air-trapped stoppers, are also common.
Stemware, bar items, and a few elegant vases designed for Steuben by the leading industrial designer Walter Dorwin Teague ( 1883-1960) in the early 1930s are considered among the most innovative American Art Deco glass. Teague’s slender, elegant Art Deco cocktail and wineglasses are comparable in value to the best Lalique pieces.
VERLYS AND CACIQUE-STYLE GLASS
The trademark “Verlys” derives from “Venetic d’Andelys”, a French glassworks (est. 1920) in Les Andelys, Lure, founded by the American Holophane Glass Co. However, from c.1933 until 1955 most decorative Verlys wares were made in the USA, and pieces are often found on the market there today. Verlys ware is growing in popularity in the USA and also has some market in Europe. Typical of the factory’s output arc press-moulded vases and bowls, mostly with symmetrical patterns evocative of Lalique, in deep-bluish Opalescent glass. Smoky-grey, blue, and pink are rare and generally less popular; even the best designs have values comparable only to those of the plainest Lalique. From 1926 the Consolidated Lamp & Glass Co. of
Coraopolis, Pennsylvania, produced an inexpensive range of mould-blown vases and some figural plates in the style of Lalique under the direction of Reuben Haley. Production continued on the same site – trading as the Phoenix Glassworks – until the 1940s, under Reuben’s son, Kenneth Haley.
“RUBA RHOMBIC” AND DEPRESSION GLASS Between 1928 and 1933 the Consolidated Lamp & Glass Co. produced a stylish line of vases and table glass called “Ruba Rhombic”. Examples are highly collectable, although the line was relatively inexpensive when first produced. Liqueur sets and small vases in smoky grey are most common. Collectors focus on vibrant or rare colours such as green, yellow, lavender, and black. It is estimated that fewer than 1,500 pieces exist today.
Ruba Rhombic is the finest of the so-called “Depression” glass that was produced by scores of regional firms, and consisted mostly of heavily moulded kitchen- or tableware in pale monochrome, sometimes in the Art Deco style. Depression glass is collectable in the USA but remains very affordable.
Steuben Glassworks
• FORMS Neo-classical or Chinese-style vases, clear crystal animals,decanters with air-trapped stoppers; Art Deco stemware, vases, and barware by Teague
• ORNAMENT engraved, stylized figures or fauna
• COLLECTING elegant Art Deco cocktail and wineglasses are most valuable
Verlys
• FORMS press-moulded vases and bowls, with Lalique style symmetrical patterns
• COLLECTING becoming increasingly popular; opalescent colours are more desirable than smoky grey, blue, or pink
Phoenix Glassworks
• STYLE some copies of, or attempts to emulate, Lalique are found, but they can be distinguished by their light weight, poor definition, poorly finished rims, sugary frosted texture, and use of matt, pastel staining, sometimes in two colours
• COLLECTING as yet of no significant value

Ruba Rhombic glass
• FORMS angular, heavily moulded vases and tableware, mostly= pale monochrome
• COLLECTING angular “Ruba Rhombic” pieces in vibrant or rare colours such as green, yellow, lavender, and black are most desirable

Yuan and early Ming
During the Mongol occupation and the early reigns of the Ming Dynasty, momentous changes occurred at Jingdezhen in Jiangxi Province. The kilns came under imperial patronage, and fine porcelain with underglaze decoration supplanted the glazed stonewares of the Song period as the most desirable form of ceramic. Exported Longquan celadons remained a vital source of revenue for the government.
PORCELAIN
Although porcellaneous wares had been made from the late 6th century, it was at Jingdezhen that porcelain developed to its full potential. The addition of kaolin (china clay) to the batch made it possible to make much larger pieces than before. Shu fu wares, which take their name from the two moulded Chinese characters shit and fu (”Privy Council”) found on their interiors, arc of thickly potted white porcelain with an opaque, greyish-white glaze; these were made during the Yuan period for the Ministry of Military and Civil Affairs.
UNDERGLAZE BLUE-AND-RED DECORATION
The use of underglaze decoration probably dates
from c.1330. Cobalt imported from Persia was applied directly onto the unfired body, which was then glazed and fired. Copper oxide, which fires red, was often used in combination with underglaze blue in the earliest painted wares of Jingdezhen, and by the late 14th century it was used on its own. Copper is much more volatile than cobalt and many of these pieces are flawed, the red being greyish and dull.
In 1368, after the Mongols were finally expelled from China, the Ming Emperor Hongwu (1368-98) imposed a strict trade embargo, and foreign cobalt became very rare. The use of copper oxide therefore became more widespread, and copper monochromes were introduced, reaching their peak in the reign of Xuande (1426-35). The Yongle (1403-24) and Xuande reign periods are also regarded as belonging to the classical era of blue and white, when foreign cobalt was once again in plentiful supply. The blue tended to filter through the glaze, creating an effect known as “heaped and piled”, much imitated during the Qing period.
Longquan
• FORMS abandonment of archaic forms in favour of large platters and forms dictated by the export market
• GLAZE thinner and more olive than on Song wares
• DECORATION very little space left undecorated
Qinghai
• FORMS large pieces made possible by the addition of kaolin to the paste
• DECORATION increasingly ornate, with little space left undecorated; beading and Buddhist figures common
Shu fu
• BODY thickly potted porcelain
• GLAZE opaque, greyish-white and waxy
• DECORATION may have moulded Chinese characters
shu and it scarcely visible under the glaze; moulded floral decoration on the inside and incised decoration on the outside
Blue-and-white wares
• FORMS bottles, bulbous wine jars, and large platters
(many with bracketed rims) for the export market
• GLAZE viscous in the Yuan period and inclined to
the pitted “orange-peel” effect in the early Ming
• BLUE dark speckled blue, known as “heaped and piled”, on some Xuande and Yongle pieces
• DECORATION themes include fish among aquatic plants, flower motifs, grapes, and vine tendrils (specifically for the export market)
• STYLE crowded arrangements in the Yuan, but elegant, harmonious spacing in the Yongle and Xuande periods

Flatware, or cutlery, remains among the most popular antique silver today. Spoons, owned and valued by all classes of society, are among the earliest utilitarian silver to survive in any quantity – being small, they had a relatively low value as bullion and were not as readily converted into coin as larger items. Forks were only used for sweetmeats or desserts until the 16th century in continental Europe and the late 17th century in Britain. It was not until the 18th century that matching sets of silver spoons, forks, and knives were produced, but thereafter they were made on a large scale and in an extensive range of patterns. Complete and original sets of flatware are rare and expensive, since individual pieces were often very heavily used and then replaced.
APOSTLE SPOONS
English apostle spoons were made in London and the provinces from the mid-15th to the mid-17th century. They have a fig-shaped bowl and faceted hexagonal stem, and are so called because the cast finials depict the
12 Apostles; originally they were made in sets of 12 or
13 (the thirteenth spoon usually representing Christ), but very few full sets survive today. Spoons were often given as christening presents, the child receiving the spoon representing the saint after whom he was named. Each Apostle can usually be identified by the symbolic object in his right hand – for example keys or a fish for St Peter or a saltine cross for St Andrew. The bowl and stem were created from a single piece of silver, one part being drawn out for the stem and the other hammered into a shaped die for the bowl; the finial was attached with a “V”-joint on pieces made in London; provincial makers used a lap joint. The position of marks on apostle spoons is also distinctive – the town mark is in the bowl; other marks appear on the back of the stem.
Apostle spoons tend to fetch high prices on the market today, as they have been of interest to collectors and antiquarians from as far back as the 18th century. Many fakes were created by cutting off the stem from a similar spoon and adding a reproduction apostle finial. Indistinct features of the apostles are not always a sign that the finial is a fake, because in the 15th and 16th centuries a single mould may have been employed to cast hundreds of finials, so some genuine examples lack sharpness.
SETS OF SILVER FLATWARE
French styles of silver were popular in England after the Restoration in 1660, when King Charles II returned from exile in France. Among the new forms introduced was a type of spoon with an egg-shaped bowl and broad, flat stem ending in a simple trefoil, known as a “trefid” spoon. The bowl was joined to the stem by a tapering rib, or “rat-tail”, and sometimes the back of the spoon was decorated with scrolls in low relief or engraved with a crest or initials. By c.1690 the trefid pattern had flattened out into the “dognose” – the end of the stem had a central curve with a smaller one on either side. Dining forks, used in France and Italy since the 16th century, were also introduced to England at the Restoration; these followed the styles of trefid and dognose spoons and usually had two or three prongs, or tines. Early forks are rare and much sought after. Some fakes have been converted from spoons, but the proportions are slightly wrong and the tines too thin. Usually, early forks were thick and heavy.
By the early-18th-century forks, knives (with rounded cannon- or pistol-shaped handles), and spoons were made as a set – a trend probably influenced by the fashion for dinner services with matching ornament. The first pattern for matching flatware was the “Hanoverian”; it features a flat, rounded end turned upward and a ridge along the front of the handle. Coats of arms or crests were engraved on the back of the stem, since flatware was laid face down on the table in the French manner.
The Hanoverian pattern evolved by the 1760s into the “Old English” pattern, with a plain, rounded end but turned down instead of up (on spoons), according to the new fashion of placing cutlery face up on the table. In the same period, forks were made with four instead of three tines. With increasingly elaborate dining habits, special silver-gilt services for dessert became popular.
Flatware was made in a huge variety of patterns from the late 18th century, especially with the development of mechanized manufacture in Sheffield, which became the most important centre of cutlery production in England. The more popular styles in the late 18th and 19th
centuries included the “fiddle” (with the end of the handle in a fiddle shape), and the more ornate “King’s” and “Queen’s” pattern. Flatware of this date was often supplied with a fitted case.
Today, complete and original sets of flatware, even from the 20th century, are very rare, as pieces were often replaced due to heavy use. When buying flatware, it is important to check for forks that have been trimmed off (this is difficult to detect) and for spoons whose bowls have been reshaped to disguise wear.
CADDY AND MOTE SPOONS
Before the 1770s tea was measured out using the domed caps on tea-caddies; when these were replaced by larger lids a small spoon was kept in the caddy. From the late 18th century thousands of caddy spoons were produced in a diverse range of designs, especially by manufacturers who specialized in “toys” – wine labels, boxes, buckles, and other small items. Like wine labels, caddy spoons are popular with first-time silver collectors.
Among the earliest and most common designs was a spoon with a shell-shaped bowl; other popular novelty forms included a vine leaf with a vine tendril as a handle, a shovel or scoop, and, most coveted by collectors, an eagle’s wing and a jockey cap. Most spoons were made by die-stamping, but heavier and more expensive pieces might be cast. Filigree and handles of bone, ivory, or in other- of-pea rl were also used. In recent years many reproductions of earlier designs have been produced.
Mote silver spoons, or skimmers, were used to skim tea leaves off tea. Made from the early 18th century, they usually have a pierced bowl, with a pattern of circular holes or crosses and scrolls, and a slender, tapering, pointed stem, for unblocking the spout of the teapot. Mote spoons were often made en suite with teaspoons. Some fake mote spoons have been converted from teaspoons, but teaspoons have larger bowls and no pointed end and are shorter.
LADLES AND FISH SLICES
Ladles for serving soup, sauce, punch, and sugar were produced from the 18th century, sometimes en suite with tureens and punch-bowls. The styles tend to follow flatware, but some soup ladles were made with deep-fluted shell bowls. Punch ladles had circular or oval bowls with a lip and a handle of wood, whalebone, or silver.
Fish slices, produced from the 18th century, have a broad pierced blade and turned wooden or silver handle. Early pieces are pierced with simple patterns, but some Victorian ones depict fishing themes. Fish slices are easily damaged, especially on the piercing and where the blade joins the handle.

Apostle spoons
• CONSTRUCTION the finial is joined to the stem on London-made spoons with a “V”-joint and on provincial pieces with a lap joint
• COLLECTING very few complete sets survive today; most are provincial pieces
Marks
The town mark is typically found in the bowl; other marks may appear on the back of the stem
Flatware
• COLLECTING it is important to check patterns closely because of small variations in design; complete and original sets are now rare; those with an equal amount of wear on each piece are most collectable; early forks are valuable; knives made before 1800 are abundant but few have survived in good condition
Marks
These were struck near the stem in the early 18th century but near the handle by the 1770s
Caddyspoons
• CONDITION check for badly repaired pieces, with spoons that have snapped where the bowl joins the stem; filigree spoons tend to be very fragile
• COLLECTING designs are extremely varied
STYLES OF FLATWARE
Sets of flatware with matching decoration were first produced in the early 18th century. These are some common styles.

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