CIRCA 1300-1325

Details

AN EDWARD II SILVER ACORN-KNOP SPOON
CIRCA 1300-1325
The fig-shaped bowl with tapering facetted handle, terminating in a finial cast as an acorn
5 3/8 in. (13.5 cm.) long
11 dwt. (17 gr.)

Provenance

The Benson Collection by 1952.

Literature

Commander G. E. P. How and J. P. How, English and Scottish Silver Spoons, Mediaeval to Late Stuart and Pre-Elizabethan Hallmarks on English Plate, London, 1952, vol. I, p. 104, pl. 14.
D. J. E. Constable, The Benson Collection of Early Silver Spoons, Golden Cross, 2012, pp. 32-33, no. 7.

Exhibited

Toronto, The Royal Ontario Museum, Seven Centuries of English Domestic Silver, January to March 1958, no. A.2 (lent by Miss J. P. Benson).
On loan to the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, 2006-2012.

Brought to you by

Matilda Burn

mburn@christies.com +44 (0)20 7752 3026

Lot Essay

ACORN KNOP SPOONS

The Acorn knop spoon is among the earliest form of post-Roman European spoon known, with examples dating predominantly from the beginning of the 14th century. Their importance to their early owners is shown by their appearance in wills. Timothy Kent in his introduction The Benson Collection of Early Silver Spoons, p. 3 cites the will of John de Halegh, proved in 1351, who bequeathed twelve spoons with 'akernes' to Thomas Taillour. John Botillor, a draper leaves his wife Isabella 'twelve best spoons with gilt acorns.'

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