Double-struck Reverse Laceback Trefid Spoon, 1688 Edward Nott

This is scintillating silver laceback trefid spoon!

Firstly, at 8.75” long it is a large spoon. Secondly, the laceback decoration is super-crisp and rather unusually is struck to the reverse of the bowl and the reverse of the stem too - this is an early laceback trefid spoon for the west country and so may have been a prototype example from a half-remembered image during a visit to London.

As the laceback design is located to the reverse of the terminal, this means that the betrothal initials needed to be engraved to the front and these are also very helpfully dated to 1688 and exuberantly highlighted with extra flourishes.

The condition is superb with the extremely crisp decoration  and a large, generous unworn bowl that shows the decoration on the reverse as minor indents to the inside, base of the bowl. The patina is excellent and there are three very clearly struck “EN” maker’s marks in gothic script. This is most likely for the Exeter maker Edward Nott who gained his freedom in 1677.