Antique American sterling silver enamel spoon with a hand-hammered bowl and a beautifully preserved poinsettia floral terminal — a charming, datable piece of early 20th-century handicraft silver, engraved and dated 1919.

• Solid sterling silver, marked STERLING with maker's punches
• Hand-wrought, planished (hammered) oval bowl
• Polychrome enamel handle: red poinsettia blooms over green foliage on a cream ground
• Enamel bright, glossy, and fully intact — no chips or losses
• Engraved "Marilyn 1919" to the reverse of the terminal — a personal keepsake with a firm date
• Approx. 5 inches long, 20.4 grams

This spoon is offered in honest antique condition. The bowl shows the warm age toning and light surface marks you would expect from a piece over a century old, while the enamel work remains bright, glossy, and completely intact with no chips or losses. This is our in-house grade estimate from in-hand examination — the spoon is raw and uncertified, and we always encourage buyers to judge condition from the photos, which form part of the description.

Hand-hammered sterling with enamel decoration sits squarely in the American Arts & Crafts tradition, when makers prized visible handwork and small painted accents over machine polish. Poinsettia motifs carried a Christmas association, so floral enamel spoons like this were popular holiday and keepsake gifts in the 1910s and 1920s. The engraved "Marilyn 1919" suggests exactly that — a named, dated personal gift that has survived intact. Pieces combining a hammered bowl with hand-painted enamel are noticeably scarcer than plain souvenir spoons of the same period.

The spoon carries a maker's monogram, two small English-style pseudo-hallmark punches, and the word STERLING — a marking convention used by American enamel-spoon makers, and the engraved date of 1919 places it precisely in that era. Value on enamel spoons hinges on the maker, the survival of the enamel, and the quality of the handwork. This example scores well on all three: clean enamel, a clear hand-hammered finish, and a firm date.

This spoon weighs 20.4 grams. As sterling (.925) that equals roughly 0.61 troy ounce of fine silver — about $45 in melt value with silver near $75/oz at the time of listing. That intrinsic silver content gives the piece a solid base of real value, with the decorative, dated, clean-enamel appeal layered on top.

Curiosity Coins — Medway, Massachusetts | Est. 1999 | ANA • PCGS • NGC • Heritage Auctions Member / Buying & selling US and world coins, silver, gold, currency, and collectibles since 1999. Many auctions start at $5 — combined shipping always available. Questions welcome.