17th Century Provincial Silver Seal Top Spoon
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English 17th century provincial silver seal top spoon, unidentified makers mark, with a fig shaped bowl with small rat tail and hexagonal stem, incised 'I P' to back of bowl, prick engraved to seal 'Ji(?)I.E//1621, total weight 72gm, length 18 cm note: similar examples are noted as 'Typical Sherborne Seals' and illustrated in 'West country silver spoons and their makers 1550-1750,' by Timothy Kent M.A., figures 3 and 4.
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- Rat Tail - A spoon with a flattened handle, tapering from the narrow section at the bowl, and wider as the top of the handle, that when viewed from above is of a similiar shape to a rat's tail. Also known as the Hanoverian pattern, as its manufacture spanned the reigns of George I, II and III (part) of the House of Hanover dynasty. The rat tail pattern was the forerunner to the Old English pattern.
- Incised - A record of a name, date or inscription, or a decoration scratched into a surface, usually of a glass or ceramic item with a blunt instrument to make a coarse indentation. Compare with engraving where the surface is cut with a sharp instrument such as a metal needle or rotating tool to achieve a fine indentation.
- Engraving - The method of decorating or creating inscriptions on silver and other metal objects by marking the surface with a sharp instrument such as a diamond point or rotating cutting wheel.
- Marrow Spoon - A spoon with a long handle and a narrow scoop shaped bowl, used to scoop and eat marrow from the hollow centre of roasted bones. Some marrow scoops are double ended with a different shaped bowl at each end.
This item has been included into following indexes:
- silver cutlery / flatware, patterns - rat tail rats tail rattail pattern 57
- spoons, silver