Limerick Maker - Samuel Purdon

[bstaunto]

Hi all,

Picked up this little teaspoon with a matching Dublin one. Marks are obviously a bit rubbed, but could tell from the fleur-de-lis that is was probably Limerick. Getting a closer look, it appears to be S*P for Samuel Purdon who was working 1830s-1840s. I haven't tracked down the crest yet, it is a stag's head with a cross coming out the top.

Cheers, Ben.

[dognose]

Great find Ben! Thanks for sharing it with us.

Trev.

[scorpio]

Nice find Ben. Your spoon is much earlier than the 1830s. Samuel Purdon worked from 1800 at 3 Charlotte Quay, Limerick according to A Celebration of Limerick Silver and Bennett mentions that date too as the start of his working life. Also, the trefoil device on the spoon (its significance is not known) was seen on Limerick flatware around 1800.

[airgeadoir]

Ben,
The crest is for a branch of the Power or De la Poer family principally located in County Waterford in the South East of Ireland. Depictions of this crest adorn Curraghmore, seat of the Marquess of Waterford (De la Poer-Beresford), as well as the gate piers at the entrance to Faithlegg House near Waterford, now a golf club and country house hotel and formerly the seat of Power of Faithlegg!
John

[dognose]

Apparently the crest is known as St Hubert's Deer.

See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubertus

These links may also be of interest: http://russianside.blogspot.com/2017/06 ... house.html

and: https://www.flickr.com/photos/nlireland/6288982454

Trev.