Description: Silver basting or serving spoon with a rattail marked "AR" in an oval for Andrew Archer (d.1725) of London; the hallmarks Brittania, lion's head erased, and the date letter "B" for 1715-1716; and engraved with the the crest of a wheat sheaf uplifted by two arms on the handle. There was a sudden diversity of spoons produced during the English post-Restoration period, which included basting spoons that doubled as soup and punch ladles with their deep and eliptical bowls. In addition, in 2003, the Victoria and Albert Museum exhibited a similar spoon identified as a cook's spoon and dating to 1701-1702, which the label noted: "Cooks in grand houses were issued with their own silver spoon."
Link to share this object record: https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+75.187 |