Hello all. Here is some information on actress spoons. It's from the Old and Sold website. Google the words "old sold article 872" to find the link to this article. It's an interesting read and some of you may find information on your spoons there as well. "One of Miss Garrett's old Gorham catalog pages shows a set of fifteen actress spoons made in a limited edition of 250 sets, for the 1892 Actor's Fund Fair held in New York City. Each spoon is tipped by a dimentional bust of an actress and carries a facsimile of her autograph. The signatures on the old catalog page cannot be read, and Gorham now has no record of the fifteen actresses portrayed. Of this set of spoons, Miss Garrett has six which show these signatures; Sarah Bernhardt, Rosina Vokes, Mary Anderson, Annie Russell, Fanny Davenport, and one which is illegible. These limited edition spoons were sold at the Actors Fund Fair, to raise money for indigent theatrical performers. For the same 1892 Fair, Gorham made the remarkable cream ladle showing five actresses on obverse handle and five actors on reverse."

Oh, I think an olive spoon is far superior to an olive fork! Easier to catch the olive, for one thing. And no holes in the olive. But it doesn't look like an olive spoon (I sort of had an olive spoon quest a while ago because a fork really DIDn't work for me, so I've seen many types). It looks like you tilt it one way to drain and then the other way to pour out the stuff. The spout allows you to put it where you want it. A precision tool! I could picture applying relish to a hotdog with it. Left-handed people are forced to adapt, of course.

The lion passant means Sterling in Britian. The Danish mark for Sterling 925 pure silver is 3 towers. Two towers means a lesser purity. If it were British Sterling (or Scottish or Irish or even from India) it would have the purity mark (lion, leopard head or seated Britiana) the date letter (always in a special cartouche and a different letter for every run of the alphabet) the duty mark (a royal's head) the city mark showing in which city it was made (leopard for London, anchor for Birmingham, thistle for Dublin...forget any others) and the maker's mark....which to the best of my knowledge was always initials. Because of the lion and the full name and the total of four marks, I suspect it could be American made during the time when silversmiths sometimes used marks on coin silver to imitate British sterling....coin is not the same purity as Sterling, only 900 parts fine. However, I couldn't find a record of any American silversmiths with the name of Schack. Linda C

Brenda....what is the marking on the back? and how big are the spoons...more to the point how much do they weigh. If they are sterling and tea spoon size, they are worth about $15 to $30 each depending on the desirability of the pattern. If they are serving spoon size, they may be worth as much as $60 each....again dependingon the weight. If they are plated, they may be worth $1 to $5 each...again depending on the desirability of the pattern. What is the mark on the back? and how long are they.