Description:
Silver mote or strainer spoon with a saw-pierced bowl attached to a long tapering handle with a pointed end and simple drop, which has the touchmark "JR"? in script in a rectangle once on back of handle, and engraved with the initials "MA" on the drop at back of bowl. This spoon was given to Mrs. Flynt by Mrs. Manson of Great Bardsfield, Essex, England, a descendent of Jonathan Belcher (1682-1757), who was the colonial governor of the British provinces of Massachusetts Bay, New Hampshire, and New Jersey, as a Belcher family heirloom. These slender pierced spoons with pointed stems were referred to in the 18th century as "strainers." Their bowls were used to skim stray tea leaves from a cup of tea, and their pointed stems to remove clogs from the interior strainer at the entrance to the spout of the teapot. First apearing at the turn of the 17th century, mote spoons were made for about 80 years until superceded by the invention of the tea strainer and the caddy spoon in the latter half of the 18th century. Strainer spoons were frequently supplied en suite with teaspoons and sugar nippers.
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https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+64.450 |
