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Cape Silver Basting Spoon - John Townsend
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Reference: S11149
Period: George IV
Year: Circa 1830
Silversmith: John Townsend
Place: Cape
Price: $ 490.00
Weight: 113 grams
Dimensions: 29.2 cm
Condition: Excellent, very strong tip to spoon bowl, has not seen much use.
Description: A Cape silver Basting spoon in the Fiddle pattern, with original owners engraved initials LIA in script. The spoon is a pleasing weight, and is in excellent condition, this spoon has not seen much use at all. The tip of the bowl has a strong lip, this is more a Continental than English feature, and the long rounded drop is also more Continental in style than English. The hallmarks are excellent, makers mark JT and 3 English pseudo hallmarks, duty mark, date letter a and leopards head town mark (Welz mark 121, Cape Silver). John Townsend (1800-1875) was an interesting character, descibed by Heller as one of the top 5 Cape silversmiths. He arrived in the Cape in 1821 on the ship Duke of Marlboro, and was involved in a number of businesses, including a hotel and auctioneering business, in addition to being goldsmith, silversmith, jeweller and watchmaker. He was embroiled in a number of court cases, mostly due to bad debt, in 1849 he stated "insufficient means to support his 10 children". He moved to Okiep in Namaqualand in 1852 as Manager of Spektakel Copper Mine, but was insolvent by 1868. He died in 1875, and is buried in the Springbok cemetery. He fathered 24 children by 3 wives, the last at age 74. We thank his descendant Guy Barker for this information.
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Cape Silver Basting Spoon - John Townsend
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John Townsend Cape silver pseudo hallmarks
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Cape Silver Basting Spoon - townsend
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Cape silver serving spoon bowl
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Cape silver engraved initials, LIA, LJA
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Cape silver serving spoon, scale
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