Description: One of a set of nine pewter spoons. These spoons have round bowls and slip top handles with a small rat tail on the back, each spoon is stamped in the bowl with a crowned rose mark, the crown has the initials "HK", unknown maker. The crowned rose was used on pewter from the mid 16th century to denote higher-quality metal. Most pewterers had their own variation of the design. By the end of the 17th century pewterers were also using a crowned X to indicate harder alloys, but as time went on all control over the use of both marks was lost and pewterers used them indiscriminately on all their wares. Crowned rose marks can be helpful in identifying pewterers as most used their own variation of the design.
Link to share this object record: https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+1988.4 |