Seal-top Spoon

Dateca. 1620

Artist/Maker John Quycke

MediumSilver; Gold (Silver-gilt)

DimensionsL: 7 1/16"; W (bowl): 2"

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1971-246

DescriptionSpoon. Baluster seal top.
Label TextThis is one of a small group of highly important gilt seal-top spoons with engraved religious mottoes on their handles and bold foliate engraving in their bowls. Forming one of the most distinctive groups of English spoons and provincial decoration, they are the work of John Quycke of Barnstaple, a member of a large family of silversmiths. According to the Barnstaple parish register, he was married in 1603 and died in 1632. The spoons bear his maker's mark of a leafed strawberry within a shaped shield on the face of their bowls, a rebus for "quycke," a local Devonshire word for berry. The secondary mark "RM" in either of two forms is stamped three times on the underside of their handles. This is a debased form of Barum, the Latin name for Barnstaple.

Considering their engraved mottoes and the consistent elaborate enrichment of their bowls, these spoons were probably intended for ceremonial purposes, such as christening and wedding presents. That hypothesis is supported by the pounced initials, usually accompanied by a date, on the bowls of most of them. Some, as in this case, bear initials and a date later than manufacture. From the seventeenth century onward it would appear customary to give an old spoon on such occasion and to pounce or engrave the spoon at that time. The double set of pounced initials and date on this example probably indicate that it was given as a wedding present in 1660.

The engraved bowl decoration on this spoon is very similar to that on a female terminal spoon from the Cookson collection. The handle of the latter is engraved with the motto "HONNOR GOD.” The face of its bowl is marked with the leafed-strawberry maker's mark of the Colonial Williamsburg spoon. A virtually identical spoon, but with handle and bowl unengraved, and a further spoon with the same terminal figure but an elaborate knopped stem and engraved bowl, both bear an "IQ" maker's mark. The use of these maker's marks on spoons obviously by the same maker led Commander How to attribute them and the group of seal-top spoons to John Quycke, whom he considered "the greatest English spoon-maker of all time."

This spoon, except for the detailing of its seal, is of standard seventeenth-century form. The knop below the end of the seal, as in the other spoons of the group, is embellished with strapwork rather than the usual gadroons, as in CWF accession 1971-139.

InscribedPounced owner's initials (R S over T L) and date (1660) on underside of bowl.
Markings"RW" stamped three times on the back of the handle
ProvenanceVendor: How (of Edinburgh), London
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