Shakespeare, skinnydipping, and silver spoons

I have some large medical bills to pay and car trouble on the horizon, so if you would pop over to my Ebay store and see if anything appeals to you, it would help me out a lot. There's original paintings, a variety of books and odds and ends. The lamp I covered in my last post isn't up yet. I'm not sure how to ship something that size.

Friday at work I was trying to assess an unusual spoon. The back of the spoon said in tiny letters Blackstone, and in larger caps THE WARWICK, which could mean a number of things. On the handle of the spoon, among the decoration, is a tiny portrait, only 1/4" wide by 3/8" high. Tarnish and time hasn't been kind to it, but it looks a lot like Shakespeare.
Probably not much over 100 years old, but is it silver or just plated? That's the question.

I ran across a set of really old spoons once. Pewter, poor quality casting, stamped with a rose & crown. Turned out to be 400-500 years old. People have no idea what they give away, sometimes.