Seal Top Spoon

[juantotree]

Hi

Can anyone help me identify the origins of this seal top spoon, it has the characteristics of an English provincial piece, but I haven't been able to find any reference to the marks.

Many Thanks
Martin

[dognose]

Hi Martin,

Great find!

It's a London spoon. The 'Crescent enclosing a Mullet' mark was thought to have been used by succession of London spoonmakers between 1550 and 1630, so, to my knowledge, the actual maker is still a mystery.

The 'V' year letter is for 1617.

Trev.

[dognose]

At this date, William Cawdell may be the prime candidate. Tim Kent, in his 'London Silver Spoonmakers 1500-1697' suggests Nicholas Bartholomew may have been the first to use the 'Crescent enclosing a Mullet' mark. William Cawdell was closely related to Bartholomew and continued in his workshops after Bartholomew's death.

William Cawdell was Warden of the Goldsmiths' Company in 1621 and died in 1625.

Trev.

[juantotree]

Great Trev, thank you so much.

Martin

[blakstone]

Piers Percival, in his article "Elizabethan London Specialist Spoonmakers", The Finial: Journal of the Silver Society of Great Britain, v. 14/06, Jul/Aug 2004, pp. 14-21, makes an argument that at this time - the second decade of the 17th century - this specific mark (with the cusped outline) was being used by William Lovejoy, who was known to have been making spoons at the Woolsack, Gutter Lane premises previously occupied by Nicolas Bartholomew and William Cawdell (from whom Lovejoy leased it).

[Traintime]

A mere coincidence, but, in Season 3 of BBC’s Lovejoy a lady must try to sell her silver. What’s she got? Seal top spoons!