A very large percentage of the Canadian Souvenir Spoons have enamel finials. This seems to have been a general trend and it adds to a spoons character.
I definitely enjoy the spoons where one color spreads into the next. The Autumn Maple leaf spoons are particularly pretty in this regards.
1. bowl: Macdonald Hall, Guelph
2. Bowl: "The Bore", Petitcodiac River, Moncton, N.B.
3. bowl: acid engraved Dunville, Ontario
4. bowl: engraved "Simcoe"
This gold plated spoon has extensive enamel work including the maple leaf and around the edge. The bowl has an embossed picture of the Ontario Parliament Building, Toronto. This is a particularly beautiful spoon. A very similar piece with different enameling is shown on the other Canada page.
1. bowl engraved Prince Rupert, B.C.
2. bowl engraved Hamilton
3. bowl engraved Toronto
3 maple leafs
Bowl embossed picture of the Ottawa Parliament Building
The finial shows a dog and an inscription in French
The back has a translation in English:
"I am a dog gnawing a bone"
"While I am gnawing I take my rest
A time will come which has not yet come
when I will bite those who have bitten me"
The following information about this dog has been supplied to me:
"I call this one the Golden Dog, The Le chien d'or, a carved stone
block, perhaps dating from the seventeenth century, now above the entrance
to the Quebec Post office. It is associated with a probably apocryphal
legend about a family feud, which William Kirby made use of in his novel the
"Golden Dog." In the early 1900s, when souvenir spoons with this motif were
manufactured, Quebec was a fashionable tourist destination, and many tourists would go to the post office to mail their post cards home and see this carving and want a souvenir of the place.
William Kirby(1817-1906) published the Golden Dog 1877 and revised in 1896.
This information was given to me by Peter Kaellgren of the ROM museum."
(information supplied by Robert Pack -- thank you)
Enameled "Mounty"
3-D moose
finial from the White River
Crowned
Red Lion enamel
Canadian
version of a Niagara Falls Spoon
David Turner of New Zealand writes:
"This is the badge of the 210 Battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary Force 1916. The circular device is that of the Legion of Frontiersman which was recruited in Moosejaw Saskatchewan. Absorbed by the 19 Reserve Battalion - the 210 served in the UK during WWl."
Thank you, David, for this information.
This girl
is identified as "miss", bowl is Vancouver post office
Interesting Quebec spoon showing a detailed calleche and the bowl has a nice skyline scene
Sir John Alexander Macdonald, 1815-1891
This spoon is a funeral spoon. A memorial commemorative of this important man.
"For forty years" (says a writer) Sir John has been "a representative of the people in parliament, for thirty years the trusted and beloved leader of the great Conservative party, and for twenty-five years the premier of the Dominion of Canada". His own words in 1873, "there does not exist in Canada a man who has given more of his time, more of his heart, more of his wealth, or more of his intellect and powers, such as they may be, for the good of this Dominion of Canada."
Visit Canadian Coat of Arm spoons
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