History returns to its raw materials.
---
Some time after he returned to Germany,
I received a message.
"I'll send you these spoons."
---
A few days later, a package indeed arrived from Germany.
I was incredibly excited.
Because I had never received a gift from an overseas friend before.
When I opened the box, there were several antique spoons inside,
adorned with delicate designs I had never seen before.
Having scoured many places for cutlery, I understood.
The quality was clearly not that of just any spoon.
Also enclosed were
souvenirs from Germany and a letter from him.
His thoughtfulness touched my heart.
---
The letter contained a message for me, along with this:
These spoons were originally meant to be melted down
and reused as new silver.
The material is silver.
.800
.835
.925
All are silver alloys of different purities,
used in Europe.
---
Since silver is a soft metal,
it's mixed with copper and other metals to give it strength.
・.800 → 80% silver content
・.835 → 83.5% silver content (widely circulated in Germany)
・.925 → 92.5% silver content (currently mainstream silver)
These values are not just material specifications;
they are clues to understanding which region and era the spoon was used in.
European silver products have
a stamp called a "hallmark."
Purity, manufacturing region, sometimes even the workshop.
This information is managed based on each country's silver assaying system, and
by comparing it with the design style,
the approximate age can be estimated.
Most of the spoons I handled this time
were .835 silver, adorned with rose decorations.
This combination
seems to have been a widely seen style mainly in Germany from around 1900 to the 1930s.
Based on the hallmarks and design characteristics,
it's highly likely they were made approximately "100 years ago."
---
What's distinctive is the intricacy of the decoration.
At first glance, the designs might seem similar,
but upon closer inspection, each one is subtly different.
The depth of the carving, the flow of the lines, the nuances of the details.
From these slight differences,
it's highly probable that they were finished by hand by craftsmen of that era.
In other words, these are not just silver products,
but "historic antiques" shaped by human hands and time.
---
In Europe, such antique silver
is often treated as "material."
Old silver products are collected,
melted down, and returned to silver ingots.
From there, they are repurposed into new jewelry or products.
---
The engraved patterns,
the time someone spent using them,
all melt away and disappear.
Only the "silver" as a material remains.
---
The exact year of birth is unknown.
But what can be said for certain is that
these are "things that have lived through someone's time."
---
Should a gift from a distant era be melted down?
Or should it
be transformed and preserved for the future?
---
That choice
is at the core of this project.
---
Next time.
The reason we
decided to protect these spoons.