POST MEDIEVAL SPOON

1550

An incomplete post-Medieval copper-alloy 'seal-top' knop spoon or 'baluster seal' type (1550-1650). Geake 2001: 76.The bowl is missing.The terminal has a flat plain top with a waist and then a decorated baluster below beneath which there is a collar. The stem is rectangular in cross-section with rounded corners.Height: 79.3mm; diameter of top: 12.1mm; diameter of collar: 7.4mm; width of stem: 5.9mm; thickness of stem: 2.8mm. Weight: 14.57g.This spoon is reddish green with traces of a white metal coating.This type of spoon knop was common from the mid-16th to the mid-17th century. Moore (1999, 5) attributes their contemporary popularity to the fact that the owner's and donor's initials could be pricked or engraved onto the disc. On this example there seems to be no engraving. Moore (1999, 5) also highlights the fact that such knops were cast separately and then soldered to the handle. However, this example appears to be integral.Geake, H. 2001 Finds Recording Guide Version 1.1.Moore, S., 1999. Cutlery for the Table. Sheffield: Hallamshire Press.