Description:
Silver bow-type sugar tongs decorated with bright-cut decoration with a zig-zag lines and a petaled flower and with oval bowl-like ends, which are marked "SA and with a lion passant used by Stephen Adams and Stephen Adams & Son of London, and engraved "Watson" in script on the inside of one arm. Adams first mark was entered as a small-worker in partnership with William Jury, undated c. 1758, followed by another mark for both on October 29, 1759; his first mark alone was entered October 8, 1760 with an address on Lillypot Lane. He added a second mark (two sizes) on February 23, 1762, and a third mark on January 11, 1764 with an address on St. Ann's Lane. Other similar marks were added on April 4, 1765, May 15, 1766, June 18, 1767, and August 15, 1769. Adams appears as bucklemaker in St. Ann's Lane in Parl. Report List of 1773, and his first mark as such was entered February 5, 1774, and with others, to 1787 (Section VIII). Adams is described as Citizen and Lorimer of London in the apprenticeship entry of his son. From the occurence of his mark and the turning over of Francis Higgins from John Manby, spoonmaker, to him in 1783, it is clear that he was principally a spoonmaker. Heal records him at Lillypot Lane, 1760; and at St. Ann's Lane, 1784-99, with name of firm as Stephen Adams and Son from 1790-1796. He seems to have retired about 1792, when his son entered his first mark as bucklemaker on March 24, 1792, and was probably dead by 5 February 1802, when the latter no longer styled himself "Junior" in signing marked entries See also sugar tongs, HD F.519.
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