AN EDWARD III SILVER DIAMOND-POINT SPOON
Lot 313 THE BENSON COLLECTION
(LOTS 301-340)

AN EDWARD III SILVER DIAMOND-POINT SPOON

CIRCA 1350

Closed4 June 2013

Price Realised

GBP 40,000

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AN EDWARD III SILVER DIAMOND-POINT SPOON
CIRCA 1350
The fig-shaped bowl with facetted handle, terminating in a diamond-point finial, marked in bowl with 'Indian' leopard's head
6¼ in. (16 cm.) long
16 dwt. (26 gr.)

The Benson Collection by 1952.

Specialist note

DIAMOND POINT SPOONS

Diamond point spoons, so called for the facetted shape of their finial, which How suggests (op. cit. vol. I, p. 161) is based on the prick or goad spur which was common in the 13th century, were first made at the end of the 13th century, eventually replacing the acorn as the most common form. The earliest example with full London marks is believed to date from 1493 but examples are known with several versions of the early Leopard head mark. A set of 'ii dozen and vi spoyns with dyamond poyntes' are recorded in the will of a Richard Morton of 1487 and cited by Timothy Kent in his introduction to The Benson Collection of Early Silver Spoons, p. 3.