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DESCRIPTION A magnificent early 18th century Swedish silver sup sked or supping spoon with a double mask terminal, four generation's initials engraved to the bowl back and exceptionally clear hallmarks and zigzag assayer's scrape. At this time in Sweden it was legal to distil your own spirits and on special occasions you partook via your personal spoon from a shared bowl. By the early 19th century this tradition was replaced by drinking from the tot or shot glasses that we still know today. This goes a long way to explain the exceptionally good condition of this spoon and the engraving to the bowl back. The earliest initials are to the top and the style of lettering changes commensurately from early to late 18th century and then the spoon fell out of use as the fashion changed to glasses. The Swedish 'till' translates as 'to' in English so we can see that four generations enjoyed this supping spoon before it fell out fashion and was left unused since around 1800. The day I took possession of this supping spoon my eldest son passed his driving test so I bought us a bottle of schnapps to celebrate using this spoon and the silver gilt pedestal bowl m5826. We were surprised by the satisfying and generous measure that this spoon provides. To put this into a modern context, those old Swedes knew how to party!
SILVERSMITH Hans Sprinckhorn (active 1693-1715)
DATE or HALLMARK 1705
ASSAY OFFICE Gothenburg
WEIGHT in GRAMS 50
LENGTH in INCHES 7
SILVER STANDARD .830
OVERALL CONDITION excellent, the bowl has a hand hammered finish to both sides, it has not been polished flat, so what is the original finish and what are later micro bumps is open to speculation

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back £380 sold item number: m6029