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Lot Essay
Buddha-Knop Spoons
This group of spoons, which are erroneously called Buddha-knops have been the subject of much conjecture by spoon scholars. Both Commander and Mrs How (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, 1953, vol. II, p. 2009) and Timothy Kent (T. Kent, West Country Silver Spoons and Their Marks 1550-1750, Windsor, 1992, p. 19) discuss them, though coming to somewhat different conclusions. Both certainly agree that the figure does not in fact represent Buddha but differ on how exactly they came to be.
They do agree however that these spoons were made almost exclusively in the West Country with examples, like the present one, make in Plymouth and others in Barnstaple. They seem to have fallen out of fashion by the 1660s.
Richard Chandler, Silversmith
The attribution of the maker's mark which appears on the present spoon is advanced by Timothy Kent (Kent, op. cit., p. 75). Kent notes that this mark appears on many of the so called Buddha-knop spoons such as the present example as well as on church plate dating to 1618. Richard Chandler was buried in June 1644.
This group of spoons, which are erroneously called Buddha-knops have been the subject of much conjecture by spoon scholars. Both Commander and Mrs How (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, 1953, vol. II, p. 2009) and Timothy Kent (T. Kent, West Country Silver Spoons and Their Marks 1550-1750, Windsor, 1992, p. 19) discuss them, though coming to somewhat different conclusions. Both certainly agree that the figure does not in fact represent Buddha but differ on how exactly they came to be.
They do agree however that these spoons were made almost exclusively in the West Country with examples, like the present one, make in Plymouth and others in Barnstaple. They seem to have fallen out of fashion by the 1660s.
Richard Chandler, Silversmith
The attribution of the maker's mark which appears on the present spoon is advanced by Timothy Kent (Kent, op. cit., p. 75). Kent notes that this mark appears on many of the so called Buddha-knop spoons such as the present example as well as on church plate dating to 1618. Richard Chandler was buried in June 1644.