CIRCA 1435-1440

Details

AN EDWARD IV SILVER PELLETED-BALL SPOON
CIRCA 1435-1440
The fig-shaped bowl with slightly tapering facetted handle, terminating in a pelleted-ball shaped finial, marked in bowl with 'Arabian' leopard's head
6 5/8 in. (16.8 cm.) long
17 dwt. (26 gr.)

Provenance

A Lady [Bruton, Knowles & Co.]; Christie's, London, 11 November 1959, lot 160 (£1,800 to How)
The Benson Collection.

Literature

'The Saleroom: Berry Finial Spoon', The Times, 12 November 1959, p. 14, col. e.
D. J. E. Constable, The Benson Collection of Early Silver Spoons, Golden Cross, 2012, pp. 51-52, no. 15

Exhibited

On loan to the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, 2006-2012.

Brought to you by

Matilda Burn

mburn@christies.com +44 (0)20 7752 3026

Lot Essay

Surviving spoons of this type are almost all of French origin. Also described as Strawberry or Fruitlet knop they appear in medieval wills. Constable op. cit. cites both a will of 1440 which includes six spoons 'de fradelett' and six others 'cum fetlettez' and six 'gilt spoons with strawberry knoppes' in an inventory of plate belonging to the Merchant Taylors' Company taken in 1512.

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