CIRCA 1380, MARKED WITH A WHEEL WITH FIVE SPOKES

Details

A RICHARD II SILVER ACORN-KNOP SPOON
CIRCA 1380, MARKED WITH A WHEEL WITH FIVE SPOKES
The fig-shaped bowl with facetted tapering handle, terminating in a finial cast as an acorn, marked in bowl
6¼ in. (15.7 cm.) long
14 dwt. (21 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. 106, pl. 15.
D. J. E. Constable, The Benson Collection of Early Silver Spoons, Golden Cross, 2012, pp. 110-111, no. 39.

Exhibited

On loan to the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, 2006-2012.

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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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