.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
Hexagonal-Knop Spoons
The hexagonal-knop is a rare survival among Medieval spoons. The earliest known examples are a set of four known as the 'Whittington Hexagonal-Knops' in the collection of the Worshipful Company of Mercers'. They are engraved with the arms of Whittington and believed to have Whittington College provenance. Commander and Mrs How date the set to circa 1410 (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. 78-81, pl 1 and pl. 2).
A nearly identical hexagonal-knop spoon, formerly in the collection of Henry Newton Veitch (d.1925), is marked for London, 1494 with maker's mark VV conjoined (The Benson Collection, Christie's, London, 4 June 2013, lot 331, £52,250) was used to date the present lot. Another example, formerly in the Cookson collection, is also incised with a series of dots, apparently numbering it two in the set (How, op .cit., pp. 174-175, pl. I).
The hexagonal-knop is a rare survival among Medieval spoons. The earliest known examples are a set of four known as the 'Whittington Hexagonal-Knops' in the collection of the Worshipful Company of Mercers'. They are engraved with the arms of Whittington and believed to have Whittington College provenance. Commander and Mrs How date the set to circa 1410 (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. 78-81, pl 1 and pl. 2).
A nearly identical hexagonal-knop spoon, formerly in the collection of Henry Newton Veitch (d.1925), is marked for London, 1494 with maker's mark VV conjoined (The Benson Collection, Christie's, London, 4 June 2013, lot 331, £52,250) was used to date the present lot. Another example, formerly in the Cookson collection, is also incised with a series of dots, apparently numbering it two in the set (How, op .cit., pp. 174-175, pl. I).