(By courtesy of Messrs. Crichton Brothers.)
Sets of thirteen apostle spoons are very rare. There is Archbishop Parker’s set at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, and including the rare Master spoon and also St. Paul with a sword, which spoon bears the date mark for 1515, while the others are hall-marked 1566. There is the Swettenham set, which belonged to the Cheshire family of that name, hall-marked 1617. The Goldsmiths’ Company have a set with the hall-mark 1626, which was presented to them some years ago by Mr. George Lambert.
We illustrate two examples of apostle spoons, one made at Exeter in 1674, representing St. Simon Zelotes ([p. 189]), and the other made in London in 1648, with the figure of St. Andrew with the saltire cross ([p. 185]).
Single specimens can be obtained, though prices range high; what could be procured for £5 ten years ago now fetches £30. Whether the war will bring prices down remains to be seen. Sixteenth-century apostle spoons realize from £30 to £90 under the hammer, according to style, age, condition, and other determining factors. Earlier spoons than the sixteenth century bring higher prices, anything from £50 to £100.
The Seal-top Spoon
Contemporary with the apostle spoons were other types. The terms now applied to them are purely collectors’ names. There was the acorn terminal, the seated lion with a shield (lion sejant), the seated owl, the pineapple, the mitre, and the head of the Virgin, which continued for a long period and is now known as the Maidenhead variety. But the most common was the seal-top with baluster ornament, which form lasted well into the seventeenth century. We illustrate an example with the London hall-mark for 1652. It will be noticed that the hall-mark appears in the bowl of the spoon. This is the leopard’s head, and may be observed in all early spoons of the apostle and kindred classes.
The Slipped-stalk Spoon
During the reign of Charles I (1625-49) the bowl of the spoon began to take different proportions, and to depart from the pear-like form. It became more oval and narrower at the base and wider near the stem. But in regard to evolution of form, the modern spoon, as is readily seen, is an inversion of the bowl. It is egg-shaped, but the narrowest part is now away from the handle, whereas formerly the narrowest part was joined to the handle. All the sixteenth and seventeenth century spoons show the old form and the later spoons show the opposite. The innovation is shown in the illustration, given on [page 185], of early eighteenth-century examples.
The slipped-stalk spoon was simply a radical departure from excessive ornament. It may have been on account of religious motives, it may have been by reason of economy. Obviously such a spoon cost less to produce without its terminal figure. Hence we have the slipped-in-the-stalk variety which was cut off transversely as shown in the illustration ([p. 181]) of an example dated 1651, during the Civil War, which form readily developed into the so-called Puritan spoon with plain, flat handle, which shortly exhibited wider ends. Of this style two examples are illustrated ([p. 181]).