Another odd yard sale find, and to make things worse I found it in an old tackle box full of vintage lures. It has nothing to do with fishing (I think). The next guess was a 19th century etiquette spoon, because why else would you have serrations on the SIDE of a spoon? Grapefruit spoons have serrations just on the front so you can actually eat the fruit without cutting your mouth. With some light cleaning I found the makers name of W.H.Horn & Son. A Google search says this spoon was made by Williamson Hartley Horn (1799-1870), and he owned W.H.Horn & Son, a painting store in Nashville around 1845-1860's. OK, perhaps an odd painters pallet tool? I know exactly zero about mid 1800's oil painting so that's just a guess as well.
I kind of like the idea of a prim and proper lady of the home teaching her rambunctious children how to eat like adults, spoon raised up to level with mouth, carefully eat, repeat. The lazy kids would get a nasty poke in the side of their mouth. But, you would expect if such a thing as that existed it would be silver or silver plate, this is a simple iron spoon with two rivets holding the handle on. I think it's a tool of some kind and not an eating devise.
