TEN RARE CHARLES II SILVER AND SILVER-GILT SHELL-FORM DISHES

These shells appear to be the earliest known of the open scallop dish form, which did not become common until the mid-18th century. The scallop shell form was often used as the hinged cover for sugar boxes in the late 16th century, but "silversmiths virtually abandoned escallop shell ornament from the 1630s to about 1705." (G. Bernard Hughes, "The Escallop Shell in Silver," Country Life, 6 November 1969, p. 1180)

Two sets of three shells, also by Samuel Hood, and a pair at the Bank of England, dated 1694, are recorded in Michael Clayton's The Collector's Dictionary of the Silver and Gold of Great Britain and North America, 1971, p. 122.