Silver medicine spoons take a variety of forms with the earliest having a very short handle and dessert spoon sized bowl. A second form is often referred to as an invalid's spoon and has a part covered bowl with an aperture at the tip to allow drinking without spillage and dates from the end of the 18th Century. The most common form dates from the mid 19th Century and has two different sized bowls at either end of the central stem and perhaps the most famous is the rare Gibson's patent medicine spoon dating from the 1820's.
