A MEDIEVAL SILVER-GILT SPOON
Lot 305 THE BENSON COLLECTION
(LOTS 301-340)

A MEDIEVAL SILVER-GILT SPOON

CIRCA 1150-1350

Closed4 June 2013

Price Realised

GBP 2,750

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A MEDIEVAL SILVER-GILT SPOON
CIRCA 1150-1350
The slightly ovoid bowl with twisted tubular handle
3¾ in. (9.6 cm.) long
11 dwt. (17 gr.)

By tradition excavated at Warwick.
Colonel Robert Frederick Ratcliff (c.1867-1943), M.P. for Staffordshire
Colonel R. F. Ratcliff, C.M.G., deceased, late of Newton Park, Burton-on-Trent; Christie's, London, 10 June 1943, lot 186, part (£9 to How).
The Benson Collection.

Specialist note

The original use of this spoon has been the subject of much discussion. Constable, op. cit., p. 25 records that C. Oman suggested in English Domestic Silver, London, 1968 that this spoon might have been for use in church as an incense spoon to transfer incense from the boat to the censer. He cites an inventory of 1368 from the Archdeaconry of Norwich which records an incense spoon at West Walton Church. Another possibility is that it was a chalice spoon, however How considered the former use more probable.