Early Samuel Hitchcock Tablespoon

According to Jackson, Samuel Hitchcock entered his first mark in 1713 (Jackson 164).  Below are photographs of a Hitchcock tablespoon which bears the (rubbed but readable, difficult to photograph) date letter for 1713.

The tablespoon is of a nice, heavy weight and very balanced in the hand.  The initials ME on the back of the spoon probably date to post-1750, so there likely could have been an erasure of earlier initials or a crest, although I don't see signs of it.  Hitchcock entered his first mark in 1713, and I like that this spoon dates to the first year of Hitchcock's career.  There are three teaspoons by Hitchcock also in my collection, which you can read about here.

Sources:
Pickford, Ian, ed. Jackson's Silver & Gold Marks of England, Scotland & Ireland. 3rd ed., 1989. Woodbridge: 
       The Antique Collectors' Club, Ltd., 2011. Print.

Irish (?) Teaspoon of Frederick Hervey, 4th Earl of Bristol and Bishop of Derry

Frederick Augustus Hervey, 4th Earl of Bristol and Bishop of Derry

The Honorable Frederick Hervey (1730-1803) was ordained as a Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge in 1754, became a clerk of the Privy Seal in 1756, and was appointed a Royal Chaplain in 1763.  The Honorable and Reverend Frederick Hervey then undertook an extensive Grand Tour, and during his travels in Europe he further developed his passion for art.  In 1767, he was elected Bishop of Cloyne, and the following year he was translated as Lord Bishop of Derry.  Bishop Hervey succeeded to the title of the 4th Earl of Bristol in 1779.  Lord Bristol was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1782 for his scientific exploration of Giant's Causeway, and received the Freedom of the City of Dublin and of Derry the next year. 

Below are photographs of a teaspoon which I believe belonged to Lord Bristol sometime after 1779, since it is engraved with both a bishop's mitre and the Earl of Bristol's crest.

The maker's mark, struck twice, appears to be CS, but I am having a difficult time finding a match to a silversmith.  Is this an Irish or an English maker?

Lord Bristol was said to have a fiery personality.  He favored religious equality, and financially supported construction of churches of other denominations.  He was also very political for a time, becoming active in the Irish Volunteer Movement and proposing in 1783, at a Volunteer National Convention in Dublin, legislative independence for the Irish Parliament.  This landed him in hot water and almost got him arrested by the British Government.  Hervey was an industrious and vigilant bishop, spending large sums of money building roads, bridges, and developing agricultural enterprise in his diocese and the city of Derry.  The Earl-Bishop took a lively interest in architecture and built homes at Downhill and Ballyscullion which he filled with works of art.  He also commissioned the Italian architect Asprucci to build Ickworth House, photo below, which was completed by his son Frederick in 1830.

Ickworth House (Photo by Squeezyboy on Flickr)

 

In 1752, the Hon. Frederick Hervey married Elizabeth Davers and had four sons and three daughters.  Perhaps their best-known daughter is Elizabeth who was the close friend of Georgiana Cavendish.  "Bess" lived with the Duke and Duchess and was a longtime mistress of the Duke, later becoming his second wife.

If anyone can offer a clue as to the maker of this teaspoon, it would be most appreciated!

Sources:
Blackwood, Loretto. "Early Bishop - Frederick Augustus Hervey."  Web blog post. Earl Bishop  Hervey. Blogger, 7 Oct 2013. Web. 21 Oct 2016.
"Frederick Hervey, 4th Earl of Bristol." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., 13 Dec 2013. Web. 21 Oct 2016.
"Ickworth House." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia.  Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., 27 Mar 2005. Web. 21 Oct 2016.
 

Charles II Silver Teaspoon

This tea (or coffee?) spoon ticked a few of my collecting boxes: made 300 years before I was born, fully-marked, useful.  The little spoon measures a shade under 3 7/8 inches.  The rattail is very worn on the back of the bowl, and the leading edge of the bowl is slightly curled. 

The teaspoon dates to 1678, and I believe is a bit unusual in that it is fully hallmarked.  In the July/August 2016 issue of The Finial, Granville Gregg poses several questions about English teaspoons, one of which is "When was the first English teaspoon made and by and for whom?"  Eric Delieb, in his Investing in Silver, illustrates a fully-marked Charles II teaspoon bearing the date letter for 1679 (Delieb 18) (which appears to have been most recently sold by Shrubsole). 

Although the maker's mark is not fully visible, it could be IM, a match for which I have not come across in Jackson's, or possibly IK for John King who Jackson identifies as a specialist spoonmaker whose mark is found on spoons between 1667 and 1683 (Jackson 127).

Do any other collectors out there have early fully-hallmarked teaspoons in their collection?

Sources:
Delieb, Eric.  Investing in Silver. New York: Clarkson N. Potter Inc., 1967. Print.
Gregg, Granville. "Musings on Spoon Volumes - Part I." The Finial 26/06 (Jul/Aug 2016). Print. 
Pickford, Ian, ed. Jackson's Silver & Gold Marks of England, Scotland & Ireland. 3rd ed., 1989. Woodbridge: 
       The Antique Collectors' Club, Ltd., 2011. Print.

Help Identifying a Mark on a Trefid Spoon

I am hoping that someone out there will stumble upon this post and be able to help identify the maker's mark on this trefid spoon.  The maker's mark appears to be a chicken head struck three times.  The terminal is dot-pricked MW over 1701.

Any help you can offer would be most appreciated!

Early Silver Dognose Forks

On January 4, 2014, I asked the question: What does a girl have to do to get some Britannia-standard forks?  When I posed my earlier question, I really had "Britannia-standard forks from the Queen Anne period with a Hanoverian terminal" type of forks in mind, but when I came across the four forks below, I found I was quite happy with the dognose terminal.  They are all delightfully heavy and a pleasure to use.  My favorite has to be the four-tined fork, a form that has been on my wish-list for quite some time.

Left to right: maker unknown, 1701; Pierre Harache, 1705; pair, makers mark of Pierre Platel visible on one only, date letter rubbed but appears to be 1714 (which seems somewhat late for the style)

Following are close-ups of the hallmarks and engravings:

Left to right: Mark of Pierre Platel, Pierre Harach, unknown maker.  I particularly like the lion's head erased on the fork on the right.

Crest and arms on forks

The only arms I know anything about are those on the fork pictured above at 6 o'clock.  This fork bears the arms of Frowde with Ashburnham in pretence, for the marriage of Margaret Ashburnham to Sir Philip Frowde.  Margaret was Philip's third wife, and by her had fours sons, Ashburnham, Peter, William and Michael.  Philip died in on August 6, 1674 and is buried in Bath Abbey Church. 


Sir Philip Frowde was appointed as manager of the General Post Office by the Duke of York and acted as agent for its lessee, Katherine, Countess of Chesterfield (Bell 203) during the time of the Great Fire in London of 1666.  In Unknown London, Bell notes that "Frowde and his lady anxiously watched the Fire bearing toward them, and at midnight, when the peril had become grave, they fled for safety" (Ibid.).  This would seem to suggest that Sir Philip and his family lived, at least part of the time, in rooms at the General Post Office.  Sir Philip Frowde's will identifies him as being in possession of the Rectory, or "Sheafe," of Welcombe in Devon and an Adventurer in the African Royal Company (Hooppell 456).



Sources:

Bell, Walter George. Unknown London. John Lane, 1922.  Google Books. Web. 21 September 2016.
Hooppell, Rev. R.E. "The Froudes, or Frowdes, of Devon." Report and Transactions of the Devonshire Association for the Advancement of Science, Literature, and 
      Art, Vol. XXIV, pp. 441-457. William Brendon and Son, 1892. Google Books. Web. 21 September 2016.

An Erskine Bookplate to Match my Scottish Silver Dessert Spoons

I recently posted an article about a trio of Scottish dessert spoons which had belonged to the Erskine family.  On a trip to the Portobello Market in London, I came across a large stack of bookplates, and when I saw the "Je Pense Plus" motto and the name "James Erskine of Alva Esqr", I couldn't believe it.

James Erskine (1722-1796) was the son of Charles Areskine (the spelling he, but not his children, preferred), and most likely the next owner of the dessert spoons, or perhaps even the one who had the spoons made.  Below is a painting by Francis Lindo of James Erskine with his first wife, Margaret Maguire, and two of their children painted in 1761.  The top of the frame is decorated with the Erskine coat of arms, which matches those on the bookplate.  Lawrence's, the auction house which put the painting up for sale in January of this year, has this to say about James Erskine: "He was appointed Lord of Sessions in Scotland (a senior judiciary role) and took the title Lord Barjarg (named for the family property on this mother's side, later sold) and subsequently changed his name to Lord Alva.  Erskine married Margaret Maguire (1729-1766) in 1749.  They had three children: Charles (1751-1761...), Isabella and John.  After Margaret's death at the age of 37, Erskine married Jean Stirling in 1772 and she bore him a daughter, also called Jean."

Photograph courtesy of the-saleroom.com

The painting below by David Allan hangs in the Scottish National Gallery in Edinburgh, and depicts James Erskine with his second wife, Jean Stirling, and three of his children.  Erskine commissioned the painting in 1780 to commemorate his becoming a founder-subscriber of St. Cecilia's Hall, the new venue for the Music Society of Edinburgh.  According to The National Galleries of Scotland website, James Erskine helped to launch David Allan's career as a portrait and figure painter in the 1760s.  This painting was one of David Allan's first group portraits in the "conversational manner."

Photo courtesy of The National Galleries of Scotland

My short trip to London was wonderful, with the usual regret of "I'll have to save this for next time" being applied to visiting St. Vedast church in Foster Lane to see its collection of church plate, scheduling an appointment to do silver research at Goldsmith's Hall, visiting the Victoria and Albert Museum, and spending more time in silver shops.  However, my visit happily coincided with the monthly meeting of the Silver Spoon Club, to which a "silver friend" invited me.  It was so much fun spending an hour or so talking about nothing but silver, but even more fun to meet people I had hitherto only corresponded with and to meet new silver friends.  I was also lucky enough to meet a couple of dealer friends who were absolutely wonderful.  If I didn't have a husband to consider on this trip, I'd still be talking to them.  Next time, I am going for a month.