A vacation trip to the ocean or a lake was a popular destination around the turn of the last century. (Not surprisingly, it still is). Manufacturers developed a number of different spoons to sell to tourists at these popular resort destinations, and it is not surprising that we have a lot of different designs in spoons.  Spoons depicting fishes, fishing and fish related activities are fairly common. The examples here are NOT meant to be exhaustive.

Among the nicest and most common spoons, "the Chinook Salmon" from the Northwest has an interesting salmon handle. The bowl on this one is hand engraved with a picture of the Olympia, Washington State Capitol Building

The Columbian River Salmon spoon is also fairly popular. This is a demi version.

Alaska Salmon

This demi version of a sailfish from Hawaii is rarer. The bowl is engraved "Aloha, Honolulu" 1905

fish/lobster

This cute demi has a fish finial, and a lobster at the bowl/handle junction

trout

An enameled trout is featured on this spoon from "Muscova"

I don't know what type of fish this is. The bowl is marked "Cottage City" and shows a sailboat. The spoon is a hand assembled piece.

                                          fishpole13 fish

Fishing has been a popular pastime for centuries. All of these spoons refer to this sport

The left one is from Nelson, British Columbia, and the middle is from Catalina Island, Calif. and it also features a "mussel" shell shaped bowl

The right spoon is from Astoria, Oregon

Nice fishing pole spoon with a "mussel" shell bowl made by Gorham and engraved "Tacoma" (Washington), and dated October 16, '93

A fisherman's flight of fancy (1904 World Fair spoon)

I am not sure what type of fish the top one is. The bowl is engraved Sandusky, Ohio

The bottom spoon is a swordfish (marlin) from Miami

bowl from Asbury Park, New Jersey

I found this realistic looking fly fishing scene on the back of a spoon

Sturgeon engraved in bowl

Cute fantasy enameled seahorse on an odd shaped gold plated (not sterling) spoon

Ocean City, New Jersey spoon which has an applied fish on a wire and at the finial there is an applied turtle. This spoon style could have been engraved at many ocean front tourist cities.

In the 19th century there were also some very interesting fish servers (slices), and fish forks which are not considered to be souvenir spoons although they do have their own beauty.

Return to SPOON WORLD home page 1