 |
Item: Spoon Description: Seal-top Hallmark: Sherborne
area circa 1672 Dimensions: 186mm long, 54g weight Comments: A superb provincial Seal Top struck 4 times with cinquefoil rose (once in bowl and thrice on stem). The spoon has a superb baluster form gilt seal and it this feature rather than the marks that help attribute the spoon to Sherborne. The distinctive finial was made by the Arden workshop and similar spoons are shown in "West Country Silver Spoons & Their Marks 1550 - 1750" as figs 3 & 4. Many local spoonmakers to Sherborne bought in these cast finials and applied them to their own spoons. This spoon therefore could have been made in one of a number of North Dorset, Wiltshire or East Somerset towns - Sherborne, Wincanton, Crewkerne, Salisbury, Devizes etc There is a contemporary engraved wedding inscription to the flat seal end "MH" over "IH" over "1672" that helps to date the spoon. Excellent balance, patina and condition. A fantastic spoon with a large bowl and well worthy of further research.
|
||
 |
 |
 |
 |
