Found old spoons buried. Any ideas?

Hi Everyone!!! I was wondering if anyone could help me with some spoons that I found buried in Zelienople, PA? I was metal detecting and came across them. They were buried all in the same pile.

It appears that all of the spoons are different, some slightly-- though the style of the spoons is all the same. The bowls are shallow and big. The handles are flat on the downside and either half-moon rounded or square on the top side. The handles are very narrow and are hard to hold. The handles enter the bowl straight with no curve, though it looks like someone bent two of them to make a curve for a better "angle of attack" if you will. The spoons look like they are one-piece, meaning it does not look like the handle was soldered to the bowl. The smaller spoon appears to be copper. One appears
to be silver-plated or sliver and I can see grinding marks on it from a tool. There are no marks except for the design on the bowl of the silver spoon.

I've attached some pictures. Any help is really really appreciated.

Sam

 

Interesting . The mark on the one looks like it might be Asian ? I "think" these are called rat tail spoons ?

 

I think rat tail spoons are quite distinctive on the base of the bowl.

 

My bad ! Not clear minded this morning .

 

They remind me of the spoons I had in an old ice cream condiment rack

 

British made. The shape of the utensil end, the bowl, is typical, fairly shallow and eggshape rather than pointed oval as Amerian spoons are. The workmanship (lack thereof rather) shows that these were cheaply made spoons for heavy use such as in the servants' dining room in a big house, workhouse (where poor people paid off their debts) or farm workers eating room. They are probably made of a nickel alloy, were thrown away when too worn or the eating facility closed. Since found in Pennsylvania, the spoons originally came from England probably in a very early era, like colonial times before utensil factories existed in the U.S.

 

They look similar to some pictures of Chinese rice spoons. Cool find!

 

One of them is silver. Would that be typical of servant utensils? Or do you think it's not actually silver?

 

Still doing research to help this along. Thank you, everyone, for your responses. It appears that these are Puritan style spoons. The Asian symbol and being silver is throwing me. One appears to have been gold or brass plated (not sure if brass was ever used to plate).

 

Brass could be and was sometimes plated, although if the coating is gold-coloured there's a good chance it could be gilding.

I'd say there's a 99% certainty these are Chinese - great score!

The spoon Chinese symbol is "FU" meaning "fortune" or "good luck"

 

Do you know what time period these spoons would be from?

 

They would have to be from the time imported labour came over to the USA, so from about 1860 on through to the first world war would be my guess.

There are a few sites out there that cover the artifacts of Chinese workers and their camps in N.America. Pretty interesting stuff.

 

Is there a rail line in the proximity of where you found the spoons?

 

Yes, there was a standard rail line with trains and a shortline with electric powered cars.

 

It looks like at least one is a "Slip Top Spoon." Three of the handles are half-moon shaped. I have not been able to find that anywhere.

 

I haven't been able to find any pictures of old metal Chinese rice spoons to compare.

 

I don't know if this is actually an antique, but this is the sort of thing I found that made me think "rice spoon".
https://www.ebay.com/itm/323771040549

 

Very likely pewter. Popular across the world in early times, compare here:
https://www.rubylane.com/item/186585-RL-EA002512/18th-Century-European-Pewter-Spoons?search=1

 

Boy, that handle sure does look like three of them, being in the half-moon shape.

 

From what @smallaxe found: