POST MEDIEVAL SPOON

1650

A silver-gilt trifid spoon, incomplete. The bowl is oval, and the tip of the bowl is bent towards the centre of the bowl. The stem broken at one end is flat and rectangular in cross section. Where the stem joins the bowl it curves tightly underneath to develop a 'rats tail' which is two thirds of the bowl in length. With the use of 'scratch engraving' a foliate design has been engraved on either side of the rats tail. Along the length of the remaining spoon stem on both front and back is a thin engraved border that is boxed off before the stem meets the bowl. On the front and back of the stem within this border is foliate decoration.The trifid spoon is the earliest spoon of modern from (Snodin, p.29). This is a 'lace-back' example (Snodin, p.31), so named because of the lace like scrolling foliage engraved on the back of the bowl. Trifid spoons became popular in the 1670's possibly following the French examples imported during the time of the restoration and the style lasted up until around 1700.Length: 68.03mmWidth of bowl: 25.54mmWidth of stem: 3.94mmLength of stem: 31.74mmThickness of stem: 0.94mmWeight: 6.9g