| DESCRIPTION |
I have a passion for these little gems of the Georgian tea equipage but seldom do I find examples good enough to buy. Most, around 90%, of those on offer are converted teaspoons and of the genuine 10% most are damaged/repaired.
This is the finest irrefutably genuine example that I have seen for several years and certainly the best I have been able to offer for sale. Having just spent a thoroughly enjoyable night with it under my high power inspection lamps and lenses I can
tell you a little about it. The principal and probably the only person to put this spoon to its intended use was right handed and liked to clear their motes by straining away from their body and then upwards to their left as the spoon met the side of
the tea vessel thereby preventing the motes from spilling back into the liquor. This can be deduced from the almost imperceptible wear along the right side bowl edge. There are no other signs of wear or indications of use. The bowl tip is perfect, just
as when made and exactly what you should expect. If you see that a mote spoon's bowl tip is worn/blunted like a tired teaspoon then it is not a mote spoon you are looking at but a later pierced tired teaspoon. It is just conceivable that an out of
fashion mote spoon was later used exclusively as a teaspoon to produce the uncharacteristic wear pattern but most unlikely. A glance at the margin between bowl edge and pierced area will provide confirmation. To see examples of tired teaspoons later
pierced, the most well known online auction site has a regular selection. One seller alone was passing off three each week for much of last summer. They usually sold for between £100 and £150 and are a tad expensive in my opinion for such poorly
executed and uninspired later pierced work. The hand cut pierced work to this mote spoon may not enthrall but it is well balanced, well executed, evidently fit for purpose and typical of the period. The piercings work perfectly with the elegantly
narrow bowl shape and long drop tipping its hat to the just out of fashion rat tail of earlier examples. The little double thread collar around the stem base is most unusual and unteaspoonlike. Simply an attractive decorative touch or designed to
engage with a suspension mechanism from a caddy? I know not. Lion passant from the London 1739-55 series and a maker's mark that was never expected to fit the stem and now too pinched from the rework necessitated by the hallmarking that it will likely
remain forever open to speculation. The stem of typical length terminates in a spear point that has never been pressed into action and so retains its full original length and point. |
| SILVERSMITH |
I propose Thomas Jackson I, the mark he registered in 1739 (Grimwade 2817). Daniel Bexfield shows a clearer example on his sold mote spoon webpage. Nothing that is extant on my spoon precludes this attribution and he is known to
have been working in exactly the right place at precisely the right time producing similar mote spoons. However, it is also true that nothing extant on my spoon proves this attribution. |
| DATE or HALLMARK |
1739-55, the decorative theme suggests quite strongly the earliest part of our date range. |
| ASSAY OFFICE |
London |
| WEIGHT in GRAMS |
11 |
| LENGTH in INCHES |
5+ |
| SILVER STANDARD |
.925 sterling silver |
| OVERALL CONDITION |
excellent, no repairs, engraving or erasures but to prick the bubble of perfection there is light surface scratch within the bowl, see image six, although this is still probably the finest example available to mankind today. |
