Queen's Pattern Silver Runcible Spoon, London 1851

This is a very rare example of an antique silver runcible spoon (aka pickle or chutney spoon or spork) in the highly sought after Queen's pattern. 

This Victorian spoon was made the top specialist flatware making partnership of Samuel Hayne & Duncan Cater and is in excellent original condition with crisp double-struck decoration (i.e. on both sides of the stem). It has the further benefit of having no personalised engravings nor erasures.

The runcible spoon appears in two works by Edward Lear: The Owl & The Pussy Cat ("They dined on mince and slices of quince, which they ate with a runcible spoon") and Twenty-Six Nonsense Rhymes and Pictures ("The Dolomphious Duck, who caught Spotted Frogs for her dinner with a Runcible Spoon").