Germany has been known as a producer of beautiful silver objects for a very long time. These silver souvenir spoons pay tribute to some of its beautiful cities.
The genesis of the American souvenir spoon movement is based upon souvenir spoons which were created in Germany. A whole exhibit is devoted to some of these spoons and how they influenced Daniel Low, the jeweler, who is credited with starting the souvenir spoon movement in the United States. A link to this page is provided at the bottom of this exhibit.
German souvenir spoons are usually made with "800" silver or "900" silver rather than the better quality "925" (sterling) silver which is used in much of the rest of the world. All of the spoons shown here are this lower grade of silver
Some German manufacturers also exported souvenir spoons to other countries in South America and elsewhere. Some German silver manufacturers were very active in the spoon export market.
Other examples of German made spoons are also shown in different exhibits in this museum.
One day I was having a hard time finding anything worthwhile when I stumbled across these two German spoons with nice enameled and engraved finials, but I have no idea what they commemorated. Each of the backs of the finials are engraved with the date of September 1912. Both are engraved with the same date, but to different people.
Bremen--key
to the
city
Eisenach,
Germany
Frankfurt
Heidelberg
Koln
(Cologne)
Munich
note: Three dimensional views of this figure are shown in several other exhibits.
this castle was part of the imagery used in the Disneyland Castle
Munchen
Rothenburg
reclining
nude on dog shaped bench
Kaiser
Wilhelm 11
1. Very pretty enamel handle with painted girls. 800 silver gold plated bowl engraved with initials. The back of bowl (below) dates it to "April '96"
2. Very pretty enamel cloissone handle dating the spoon to Dresden of 1887 (5 years before the souvenir spoon era in the USA)
Back of spoons shown above
Several other exhibits also contain spoons from Germany
A lot of different enamel German Souvenir spoons can be seen at the continuation of this exhibit
The "In the Beginning" exhibit also shows a number of
spoons from Germany
which led to the creation of the infamous Salem Witch spoon, if you
haven't
visited that page yet,
click here
Click here to see an example of spoons from the Grand Tour of Germany
Click to visit the Berlin Air Lift Commemorative Spoon