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Baluster Seal Top spoon: M.5-1950

An image of Seal top spoon

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Object information

Current Location: Gallery 32 (Rothschild)

Titles

Baluster Seal Top spoon

Maker(s)

Silversmith: Unidentified

Entities

Categories

Description

Silver-gilt; the spoon has a fig-shaped bowl on a tapering, slightly flattened, hexagonal stem. The seal top finial has a flattened gadrooned knop above a gadrooned urn-shaped baluster knop. The back of the bowl is prick engraved 'CR'. The gilding is old but not contemporary with the manufacture of the spoon.
Marks: On the bowl is a leopard's head. On the stem is (1) a lion passant (2) date letter P for 1572-73 (3) maker's mark of a crescent enclosing a mullet.

Legal notes

T. H. Riches Bequest, 1935

Measurements and weight

Length: 17.8 cm
Length: 7 in
Weight: 65 g
Weight: 2:2 oz:dwt

Place(s) associated

  • London ⪼ England

Acquisition and important dates

Method of acquisition: Bequeathed (1935) by Riches, Thomas Henry

Dating

16th Century, third quarter#
Elizabethan
1572 CE - 1573 CE

Note

The maker's mark of a crescent enclosing a mullet has not been identified, but as a large number of spoons, made between about 1550 and 1630, bear this mark it must have been used by a succession of specialist spoonmakers.

Components of the work

Surface composed of gold
Finial
Spoon

Materials used in production

Silver

Techniques used in production

Soldering

Inscription or legends present

  • Text: CR
  • Location: On the back of the bowl
  • Method of creation: Prick engraved
  • Type: Initials

Inscription present: a crescent enclosing a mullet

  • Location: On the back of the handle
  • Method of creation: Struck
  • Type: Maker's mark

Inscription present: lion passant

  • Location: On the back of the handle
  • Method of creation: Struck
  • Type: Hallmark

Inscription present: small gothic

  • Text: d
  • Location: On the back of the handle
  • Method of creation: Struck
  • Type: Hallmark

Inscription present: leopard's head crowned

  • Location: In the bowl of the spoon
  • Method of creation: Struck
  • Type: Hallmark

References and bibliographic entries

Related exhibitions

Identification numbers

Accession number: M.5-1950
Primary reference Number: 139845
Stable URI

Audit data

Created: Saturday 6 August 2011 Updated: Thursday 10 December 2020 Last processed: Friday 8 December 2023

Associated departments & institutions

Owner or interested party: The Fitzwilliam Museum
Associated department: Applied Arts

Citation for print

This record can be cited in the Harvard Bibliographic style using the text below:

The Fitzwilliam Museum (2024) "Baluster Seal Top spoon" Web page available at: https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/object/139845 Accessed: 2024-10-12 16:36:10

Citation for Wikipedia

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{{cite web|url=https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/object/139845 |title=Baluster Seal Top spoon |author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2024-10-12 16:36:10|publisher=The University of Cambridge}}

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