Description:
Silver spoon with an extended dognose or wavy-end handle and a large oval bowl with an elongated rattail on the back, which is marked "IP" crowned in a shaped shield, and engraved with the initials "EB" on the back of the handle. This spoon has been attributed to Isaac Perkins (c.1710-1737) of Boston who was probably apprenticed to Jacob Hurd (1702/3-1758) around 1724; he married Hurd's sister, Sarah (1712-before 1746) in 1732. No silver by this maker has been positively identified. According to Kane: "Abut a half-dozen pieces of silver dating from the third decade of the eighteenth century bear one or more of two closely related initials marks, "IP" crowned. These pieces include a cup made for the church in Hull, Massachusetts, in 1724, a round pepper box, an octagonal pepper box, and three tablespoons. The silversmith who made these pieces probably worked in Massachusetts because the cup was made for a Massachusetts church and one of the tablespoons also has the mark of Paul Revere, Sr. In the past, these marks have been attributed to Isaac Perkins. The attribution of the mark to Perkins is doubtful because Perkins only was about fourteen years old, and therefore too young to be a practicing silversmith, when the cup for the church in Hull was made. The mark may have been used by one of the two Massachusetts silversmiths with the initials IP who were working in 1724 - John Pitts or John Potwine... Or these marks could belong to an as yet unidentified silversmith."
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+61.233 |
