Live Auction 1126Centuries of Style
A HENRY VII SILVER VIRGIN AND HEART SPOON
Lot 330 THE BENSON COLLECTION
(LOTS 301-340)

A HENRY VII SILVER VIRGIN AND HEART SPOON

LONDON, CIRCA 1490, MAKER'S MARK A WHEEL

Closed4 June 2013

Price Realised

GBP 30,000

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A HENRY VII SILVER VIRGIN AND HEART SPOON
LONDON, CIRCA 1490, MAKER'S MARK A WHEEL
The fig-shaped bowl with a tapering facetted handle, terminating in a cast Virgin and Heart finial, the back of the bowl later engraved with a coat-of-arms with a mullet for difference, marked in the bowl with leopard's head, the back of the handle marked with maker's mark
6 7/8 in. (17.4 cm.) long
1 oz. 2 dwt. (35 gr.)
The arms are those of Sebright with a mullet of cadency for a third son possibly for Guy Thomas Sebright (1865-1933), later 12th Bt., third surviving son of Sir Thomas Gage Sebright 8th Bt. (1802-1864).

Guy Thomas Sebright (1856-1933), later 12th Bt.
Possibly The Guy Sebright Collection, 11 May 1882, lot 212 (described as two maiden spoon, one marked 1598).
John Henry Fraser Walker (1847-1927) of Drayton Hall, Norwich.
The J. H. Walter Collection; Sotheby's, London, 1 and 2 July 1954 (£640 to How).
The Benson Collection.

Specialist note

The present virgin and heart spoon is probably among the largest of this form and also the earliest, with most examples dating from a century later.

Other spoons similarly engraved with the Sebright arms include a slip top by Thomas Brothwell, London, 1627 (Woolley and Wallis, 28 January 2004, lot 48); a puritan by Jeremy Johnson, London, circa 1650 (Phillips, London, 15 October 2001, lot 407) and a slip top by Daniel Cary, London, 1639 (Lawrences, Crewkerne, 5 July 2011, lot 131 and previously from the Biggs Collection, Christie's, London, 20 September 1978, lot 71).