Spoon, silver, Lewes, c.1600
Record status
Individual type · partial
Period
ca.1600
Silver has long been associated with childhood. To be born 'with a silver spoon' has a literal meaning. Silver spoons with decorative finials - apostles, lions or as shown here, a child's head - were given as christening gifts. A gift of silver for a child was a store of wealth for the future. Nursery silver, pap boats, porringers, rattles and saucepans were used for their hygienic qualities.
The small size, the finial and the tiny teeth marks in the bowl of this spoon suggests it belonged to a child. Silversmiths up and down the country supplied local clients with spoons, the commonest silver object. This one was prsumably made for a local family. It was dug up in a garden in Lewes early in the twentieth century. Spoon, silver, the stem ending in an heraldic moor's head, gilt. Fig shaped bowl joined to a stem with an hexagonal cross section.
The spoon was dug up in a garden in Lewes in about 1915.
Evidence at a glance
- Linked sources
- 1
- Photograph views
- 4
- Catalogue references
- 0
Counts describe this entry’s documentation, not authenticity, rarity or completeness. Photographs may show one specimen; check each caption and licence.
Physical characteristics
- Material
- Silver, with gilt finial
- Dimensions
- Length: 12.6 cm; Weight: 17.5 g (Length and weight measurements taken by David Constable, independent scholar and spoon expert.)
Technical characteristics
- Place recorded
- Lewes
Design
- Marks and inscriptions
- Struck in the bowl of the spoon, by base of stem, fleur-de-lys in a dotted circle.; Two marks struck on the back of the stem, ?leopard's head; maker's mark of William Dodson Senior.
Identification
- Source note
- Transcribed from the Victoria and Albert Museum, London collection record for this single object (sentences kept verbatim apart from removed sale or rarity wording); how far it represents a wider collectible type has not been independently verified.
- Candidate id
- vam-O104184
- Museum object name
- Spoon
- Holding institution
- Victoria and Albert Museum, London
- Museum object number
- M.161-1922
- Museum system number
- O104184
Catalogue references
No catalogue numbers recorded. Numbers are only published once transcribed from a verified edition of a standard catalogue — they are never inferred.
Research required
- Research required: confirm the wider type, maker and dating against a specialist reference; this entry documents one recorded example.