Buying
The real spoons are in France
On the evening of October 21, 2026, eBay's American site found two antique absinthe spoons, and both were brand new. The same search in French on eBay France found 46, and only three were obvious modern pieces.
Read the marks before you buy
French silver is stamped on the back of the handle. Drag the glass along the spoon, or press the button, to see what each mark means.
The spoon is drawn after an 1888 Christofle spoon. The marks are drawn for the example and are not any real maker's.
The old spoons are mostly listed in France, in French, by sellers who are not thinking about American buyers. Search in English on an American site and you mostly find new spoons sold with a bag of sugar cubes.
One evening, nine searches
Every search below was run in a browser on October 21, 2026. The counts are what each site reported that night, and they will have moved since.
| Site and search | Found | What it was |
|---|---|---|
| eBay US, "absinthe spoon antique" | 2 | Both listed brand new: a stainless steel spoon, and a set of glasses with a spoon. |
| eBay US, "absinthe spoon" | 158 | Of the first 60, 46 were listed brand new. |
| eBay France, "cuillere absinthe argent" | 46 | 44 described as métal argenté, silver plate. One solid silver. Three obvious modern pieces. 14 named a maker or a brand. |
| eBay France, "cuillere absinthe minerve" | 3 | The solid silver end. |
| eBay France, absinthe glasses and spoons category, "cuillere absinthe ancienne" | 198 | Inside eBay France's own category for absinthe glasses and spoons. |
| leboncoin, "cuillere absinthe" | 940 | What leboncoin reported for all of France. It matches loosely, so not all 940 are absinthe spoons. |
| Delcampe, "cuillere absinthe" | 92 | Spoons, and a lot of paper: postcards and advertising. |
| eBay France, "fontaine absinthe ancienne" | 6 | Three were champagne pumps. |
| Drouot auctions, "fontaine absinthe" | 0 | A search for "absinthe" alone found 25 lots coming up, mostly posters, glasses and a bistro table. |
Silver plate is normal
On the French eBay search, 44 of the 46 spoons were described as métal argenté. That is plated metal, and it is what turns up again and again. Do not pass on an old spoon because it is plate. A plated spoon with a maker's name on it, Ercuis or Christofle for example, is a better find than an unmarked one that claims to be silver.
Watch the word argent. In French, argent is silver, and argenté means plated. A search for argent finds both. Solid silver is argent massif.
The words to search with
| French | English |
|---|---|
| cuillère à absinthe | absinthe spoon |
| grille à absinthe | the flat pierced kind |
| ancienne, ancien | old. The most useful word on this list. |
| métal argenté | silver plate |
| argent massif | solid silver |
| poinçon, poinçons | hallmark, hallmarks |
| Minerve | the head of Minerva, stamped on French solid silver |
| orfèvre | silversmith |
| publicitaire | advertising, as in a spoon with a brand on it |
| inox | stainless steel, which means modern |
| fontaine à absinthe | absinthe fountain |
| verre à absinthe | absinthe glass |
Type them without the accents. The searches below are written that way, and on eBay France "cuillere absinthe" and "cuillère absinthe" found the same 476 listings.
Search for yourself
- eBay France cuillere absinthe ancienneThe collecting category, cheapest first.
- eBay France cuillere absinthe minerveSolid silver only.
- leboncoin cuillere absinthePrivate sellers across France. Prices are all over the place, and nothing is checked by anyone.
- Delcampe cuillere absintheBest for postcards, saucers and advertising.
On eBay France, the "Enregistrer cette recherche" button saves a search. Check that a seller ships abroad before you bid.
Before you pay
Ask the seller for a photo of the marks. In French: "Pouvez-vous m'envoyer une photo des poinçons ?" If a seller will not send one, move on.
On French precious metal, the maker's mark has a shape that tells you something. Under the rules the French customs service publishes, a manufacturer's mark is a lozenge, a diamond shape, and an importer's mark is an oval.
The magnifying glass at the top of this page shows what each of those marks looks like.
Fountains are a different hunt
That evening, eBay France had six results for an old absinthe fountain and half of them were champagne pumps. Drouot, the Paris auction house, had none coming up. Drouot lets you save an alert on a search, so you hear when one is listed.
For what new pieces sold as old look like, see "Vintage" means nothing on eBay. For photographs of real spoons, see Spoons, fountains and glasses.
Sources
- Searches on ebay.com, ebay.fr, leboncoin.fr, delcampe.net and drouot.com, run in a browser on October 21, 2026, with the terms shown in the table. Counts are as each site reported them that evening.
- Direction générale des douanes et droits indirects, "Règles de marque pour la garantie des métaux précieux." douane.gouv.fr