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"Slip-End" Spoon

Date1634-1635 or 1636-1637

Maker Daniel Cary (freeman 1604 - d. 1641/42)

OriginEngland, London

MediumSilver (Sterling)

DimensionsOL: 6 3/4"; DIAM(BOWL): 1 15/16"

Credit LineGift of Dr. W. A. R. Goodwin

Object number1930-666

Description"Slip-end" type spoon; long narrow straight handle, hexagonal in section with front and back facets of greater width and terminating in an oblique angle; sides of handle tapering inward slightly from either end; fig-shaped bowl with short V-shaped drop on underside; engraved "R•K" in block letters on face of handle end.
Label TextSlip-end or slip-top spoons, distinguished by the oblique termination of their handles, resembling a gardener’s slip, were made throughout a long period. The earliest recorded London one is that of 1487/88, with late examples extending into the reign of Charles II. They share with other sixteenth- and seventeenth-century spoons a pear-shaped bowl and a narrow stalk like handle of hexagonal section, the front and back facets being of greater width, and having a short V-shaped drop on the underside at the juncture with the bowl. The shape of the bowls of late slip-end spoons reflects the changing form of contemporary Puritan and trifid spoons. This example is conventionally marked with the date letter placed high on the handle, which, as Commander How has noted, indicates that spoons of this type were never intended to have a finial.

The spoon was found in an old house foundation near Jamestown, Virginia. The precise site is not known, and the colonial records for James City County have been destroyed. The engraved initials "R•K" on the end of the handle may be those of Richard Kemp or Richard Kingsmill, both of whom were prominent citizens of Jamestown and its vicinity in the first half of the seventeenth century. A silver slip-end spoon of Continental origin has been found in a seventeenth-century context at Jamestown
InscribedEngraved "R•K" in block letters on face of handle end.
MarkingsMaker's mark D enclosing C in block letters within a conforming reserve for Daniel Cary, lion passant, and partially struck date letter on underside of handle; leopard's head crowned on face of bowl near handle.
ProvenanceEx Coll: Dr. William A. R. Goodwin, Williamsburg, Virginia

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