LONDON, 1567, MAKER'S MARK CC LINKED

Details

A SET OF TEN ELIZABETH I SILVER SEAL-TOP SPOONS
LONDON, 1567, MAKER'S MARK CC LINKED
Each with gilt baluster seal prick engraved with phoenix head erased, each marked in bowl with leopard head and on reverse of handles with maker's mark, lion passant and date letter, one spoon engraved with a scratch weight '17-5', in later fitted satin and felt lined wood box
6 3/8 in. (16.2 cm.) long; 16 oz. 2 dwt. (501 gr.)
The phoenix head appears as one of the charges in the arms of the Worshipful Company of Painter-Stainers.

Provenance

The Worshipful Company of Painter-Stainers; Christie's, London, 28 March 1962, lot 47 (unsold).
Dr John Constable (1927-2016), Massachusetts, by 1969 and thence by descent.

Lot Essay

While the earliest recorded seal-top spoon which can be exactly dated is the Pudsey spoon of 1525 Commander and Mrs. How note examples which stylistically date to as early as circa 1450. Two examples of circa 1500 were sold from the Benson Collection, Christie's, London, 4 June 2013, lots 334 and 335. The term seal-top is perhaps something of a misnomer as it suggests that the finial is intended to be used with wax to place a seal on a document, however, as such the engraving should be reversed and How notes that no example has yet appeared which is so engraved (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, pp. 212-213).

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