Trifid spoon with portrait of Queen Anne

Date1702-1714

MediumPewter

DimensionsOL: 7 1/2"; W (bowl): 1 3/4"

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1984-141

Descriptiontrifid Queen Anne spoon
Label TextThere are a considerable number of spoons with a relief-cast portrait of Queen Anne. A number of these bear relief-cast initials. When they are found on a spoon with a touch mark, they would appear to be owner's initials. In this instance, there is no maker's touch, but there are the relief-cast initials "ID" at the base of the relief decoration on the face of the handle. In addition, this spoon bears a stamped "E" within a serrated rectangle further down the face of the stem, and this initial would appear to be unquestionably an owner's stamp. Scholar Ronald Michaelis raised the question of identities with another Queen Anne spoon (formerly in the Christopher A. Peal Collection). It also has the same cast "ID" initials and the stamped "H" within a serrated rectangle placed lower on the stem. Michaelis offers no identity for the first set of initials, although he does suggest that the "H" within the serrated rectangle probably refers to a later owner. (Michaelis, "Royal Portrait Spoons in Pewter" pp. 172-173, fig. III) This same spoon or another from the same set appears to be illustrated in the catalogue of the 1974 exhibition at Pewterers Hall. It would seem that these two spoons, which appear to have been cast in the same mold and stamped with different letter dies from the same set were made by the same maker for different families and that the "ID" relates to their common maker.
InscribedInitials "ID" cast-in with relief decoration on face of handle. Owner's initial "E" within a serrated rectangle stamped on lower face of handle.
MarkingsNone
ProvenanceVendor: Robin Bellamy Antiques, Witney, Oxfordshire.