400 year old Pair Seal Top Spoons

Celebrating their quadricentenary in 2018, this pair of seal top spoons have remained together for exactly 400 years and even pre-date the sailing of the Mayflower by two years. Seal top spoons rarely appear in pairs and this twosome were bought at the same time as the flat plates to the cast seal terminals bear witness - both are dot prick engraved with conjoined "MP" initials. The reverse of the bowls are also dot-pricked: one "MB" conjoined and the other "TP", giving rise to speculation that the original giver was "MP" and the spoons were presented as betrothal gifts to "MB" and "TP".

The spoons have typical cast seal finials for the James I period and the stem is hexagonal and bowl fig-shaped as one would expect. The spoons benefit from clear sets of hallmarks including the "crescent enclosing a mullet" mark that has been tenatatively attributed to William Lovejoy by Piers Percival. Both spoons are in fine condition with unworn bowls and a fine patina.

We would like to keep these early 17th century spoons as a pair and so accordingly have priced them competitively (two singles would be more than twice the price!).