Exeter Trefid Spoon, 1680

This is a spectacular West Country trefid spoon with a huge bowl! The spoon has several unusual features which suggests the maker was relatively unacquainted with the new fashion in spoons! The trefid spoon generally has a flatter bowl form, but this large bowl is deep and more akin to those of the earlier seal tops and apostle spoons. Furthermore, the terminal is splayed out in a much more pronounced form than London-made contemporary spoons.

This fine spoon is in remarkably good condition and is engraved with original dot-pricked betrothal engravings to the reverse side of the bowl, which has the bonus of the "1680" date which will also pertain closely to the date of the spoon's manufacture. There is a crude "IW" scatch engraved to the reverse of the terminal and dot pricked "W" to the front.

The spoon is clearly marked five times - once to the bowl (in traditional seal top and apostle spoon style), once the towards the reverse terminal (in slip top and puritan spoons style) and thrice to the lower shank (covering all possibilities!). The mark displays an "X" surmounted by a crown and with a pellet either side and within a dotted cricle.