LONDON, CIRCA 1490, MAKER'S MARK A WHEEL

Details

A HENRY VII SILVER VIRGIN AND HEART SPOON
LONDON, CIRCA 1490, MAKER'S MARK A WHEEL
The fig-shaped bowl with a tapering facetted handle, terminating in a cast Virgin and Heart finial, the back of the bowl later engraved with a coat-of-arms with a mullet for difference, marked in the bowl with leopard's head, the back of the handle marked with maker's mark
6 7/8 in. (17.4 cm.) long
1 oz. 2 dwt. (35 gr.)
The arms are those of Sebright with a mullet of cadency for a third son possibly for Guy Thomas Sebright (1865-1933), later 12th Bt., third surviving son of Sir Thomas Gage Sebright 8th Bt. (1802-1864).

Provenance

Guy Thomas Sebright (1856-1933), later 12th Bt.
Possibly The Guy Sebright Collection, 11 May 1882, lot 212 (described as two maiden spoon, one marked 1598).
John Henry Fraser Walker (1847-1927) of Drayton Hall, Norwich.
The J. H. Walter Collection; Sotheby's, London, 1 and 2 July 1954 (£640 to How).
The Benson Collection.

Literature

'The Sale Room: Silver Spoons from the Walter Collection', The Times, 2 July 1954, p. 5 col. d.
D. J. E. Constable, The Benson Collection of Early Silver Spoons, Golden Cross, 2012, pp. 82-84, no. 27.

Exhibited

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

Brought to you by

Matilda Burn

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Lot Essay

The present virgin and heart spoon is probably among the largest of this form and also the earliest, with most examples dating from a century later.

Other spoons similarly engraved with the Sebright arms include a slip top by Thomas Brothwell, London, 1627 (Woolley and Wallis, 28 January 2004, lot 48); a puritan by Jeremy Johnson, London, circa 1650 (Phillips, London, 15 October 2001, lot 407) and a slip top by Daniel Cary, London, 1639 (Lawrences, Crewkerne, 5 July 2011, lot 131 and previously from the Biggs Collection, Christie's, London, 20 September 1978, lot 71).

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