MAKER'S MARK A CINQUEFOIL, CIRCA 1450

The mark on this spoon also appears on other spoons of the period, such as a Diamond point from the Cookson collection. The appearance of a rat-tail on the back of the bowl is a rare feature on an English spoon of this date, with the rat-tail more likely to be found on French or Scottish spoons.

The maidenhead finial is a popular form seen both on London and provincial spoons. Timothy Kent, in his introduction to the Benson Collection of Early Silver Spoons, p. 4, cites Sir Charles Jackson's discovery of a reference of 1446 from an inventory of the plate at Durham Priory which lists two spoons 'cum ymaginibus Beatus Mariae in fine eorundum.'