Spoon, one of six

Date1660-1661

Maker William Cary

MediumSilver (Sterling)

DimensionsOL: 7 1/2" - 7 9/16"; W (bowl) 1 15/16" - 2 1/32"

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1938-41,4

DescriptionSilver spoon; "stump-end" type; long narrow straight handle, octagonal in section, with front and back facets of greater width and terminating in a faceted and pointed end; sides of handle tapering inward slightly from either end; rounded bowl with end turned upwards with short V-shaped drop on underside. Engraved coat of arms within a lozenge with plumed mantling to the sides and below and with a crest of a lion rampant on a wreath bar above on underside of bowl. "EG" in block letters engraved on underside of handle near end. (Unidentified)
Label TextThese six superb spoons constitute the largest known set of English stump-end or stump-top spoons. No surviving examples of this comparatively rare type are recorded with a date before the reign of James I. They are the only early English spoon type with handles of octagonal, rather than hexagonal, section. Superficially, they resemble slip-end spoons, but their handles of differing section are generally longer than those of the latter, and they terminate in a faceted point rather than an oblique face. The bowls of this set are of oval form, closely resembling in outline and profile those of other spoon types of the mid-seventeenth century. These spoons are marked in the customary fashion with the date letter still placed relatively high on the handle, as on spoons without finials, but at an intermediate height, indicating their mid-seventeenth-century date. Contemporary engraved armorials with conventional plumed mantling dominate the undersides of their bowls.

InscribedUnidentified arms and crest of an unmarried lady engraved on the
underside of each bowl
MarkingsMaker's mark "WC" in block letters with three pellets above and and a pellet on either side of a rose below within a plain shield, lion passant, and date letter on underside of handle; leopard's head crowned on face of bowl near handle.
ProvenanceChristie, Manson & Woods, London (1923)
Ex Coll: William Randolph Hearst (sold by Parish-Watson & Co., New York, 1938)