Antique Aberdeen Silver Spoons and Ladles Collection

• Britannia Standard - A higher grade of silver than sterling silver. Britannia standard silver contains at least 958 parts per thousand of pure silver, while sterling silver contains at least 925 parts per thousand of pure silver.
  
  The Britannia standard was obligatory in Britain between 1697 and 1720 and after that was optional, so there are very few silver items that come onto the market that are Britannia standard.
  
  Not to be confused with silver plated Britannia metal items, often marked as "EPBM", a pewter type alloy, that when unplated can be temporarily polished to a silver-like lustre.
• Hallmarks - A mark stamped on articles of precious metals in Britain, since the 14th century, certifying their purity. It derives its name from the Guild Hall of the Goldsmiths' Company, who recieved its Charter in 1327 giving it the power to assay (test the purity) and mark articles of gold and silver.
  
  The hallmark will consist of several marks, including the:
  
  - silver standard mark, indicating the purity of the metal. Sterling silver is .925 pure silver.
  
  - the city mark indicating the city in which it was assayed eg London, Birmingham, York etc.
  
  - the date mark, usually a letter of the alphabet in a particular font and case,
  
  - a duty mark, indicating whether duty had been paid to the crown, and only in use from 1784 to 1890
  
  The piece may include an additional mark, the maker's mark, although not forming part of the hallmark, will be located in the vicinity of the hallmarks.
  
  Sometimes silver plated items will bear faux hallmarks, often confusing those not familiar with silver markings.
• Rat Tail - A spoon with a flattened handle, tapering from the narrow section at the bowl, and wider as the top of the handle, that when viewed from above is of a similiar shape to a rat's tail. Also known as the Hanoverian pattern, as its manufacture spanned the reigns of George I, II and III (part) of the House of Hanover dynasty. The rat tail pattern was the forerunner to the Old English pattern.
• Marrow Spoon - A spoon with a long handle and a narrow scoop shaped bowl, used to scoop and eat marrow from the hollow centre of roasted bones. Some marrow scoops are double ended with a different shaped bowl at each end.
• Baleen - Baleen is the filter feeder system in a baleen whale, and these whales have several hundred plates of baleen with a hairy fringe on their upper jaw.
  
  Baleen refers to the solid plate, and it is historically important as it was sought by whalers as a by-product of the whaling industry, who called it whalebone, though it is not made of bone at all, and used it for scrimshaw.
  
  The earliest artefacts were made of baleen produced from Arctic whaling in the 17th century.
  
  In the 19th century baleen was an important raw material, comparable to present-day plastics. Its thermoplastic nature and strength meant it could be used to make a wide variety of functional and decorative objects.
  
  Sailors used baleen to make sewing boxes and other small containers and another common use was brush bristles; it was even used as runners on toboggans.
  
  Baleen basketry was developed into a craft, with examples of simple baskets to complex woven ones, which could take months to complete.
  
  Other shore-based uses included in corsets, buggy whips, umbrella ribs, canes, skirt hoops and especially as a cheaper substitute for ivory in carving.
• Sterling Silver - Sterling silver is a mixture of 92.5% pure silver and 7.5% of another metal, usually copper. Fine silver is 99.9% pure silver, and is relatively soft and the addition of the very small amount of copper gives the metal enough strength and hardness to be worked into jewellery, decorative and household objects.

This item has been included into following indexes:

• ladles, toddy - silver items 153
• silver cutlery / flatware, patterns - fiddle pattern 1,115
• spoons, silver - rat tail 40
• Thomas Bradbury & Sons (Britain) - silver, maker or retailer 58