Description:
Silver tablespoon with a long elliptical bowl (some roughness and loss along the edge) with a rounded drop and 12-lobed shell on the back and a downturned spatulate-end handle mid-rib handle, which is marked "W:Cowell" in rectangle with a shaped top edge for William Cowell, Jr. (1713-1761), and engraved with the initials "S / I.M" in block letters on the back of the handle for Joseph Stebbins (1718-1797) and Mary Stratton Stebbins (1726-1797) of Deerfield, Massachusetts, who married in the early 1740s. This spoon is part of a collection of silver spoons from the Viola Wilby estate. According to a handwritten list of family objects in the file by Elizabeth Hawks Wells (1845-1938), the wife of George Merritt Wells (1839-1883) of Deerfield: "The more deep-bowled tablespoon marked "S / I. M." belonged to my greatgrandfather & grandmother - Joseph and Mary Stebbins - whose house is the yellow brick house opposite the Inn - is now owned by a member of a Lamb family - from Greenfield. Mrs. Lamb belonged to Thompson family - prominent in Greenfield. Mrs. Lamb's brother is local Express-man." The son of silversmith, William Cowell, Sr. (1682/83-1736), William Cowell, Jr. is believed to have taken over his father's shop when his father retired about 1734, and both used this same "W. Cowell" mark. His ads appear in the "Boston Weekly News-Letter" in 1741 and in the "Boston Gazette" of 1761. Two goldsmiths were among the appraisers of his estate, Samuel Edwards and William Simpkins.
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https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+2009.26.13 |
