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Rare Provincial Seal Top Spoon, Taunton - Salisbury Group A Finial
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Reference: S1506
Period: Charles II
Year: 1661
Silversmith: John Smith II
Place: Taunton
Price: $ 1 150.00
Weight: 47 grams
Dimensions: 17.8 cm
Condition: Good, slight wear to bowl tip, otherwise bowl in good condition. Light scratches, small dent to bowl. Light wear to gilding on Finial.
Description: A rare west country seal top silver spoon, with a Salisbury Group A finial. The seal top is prick engraved "E.B over T.B, 1661", indicating the celebration of a marriage. The bowl is fig shaped, and the stem is tapered and faceted. A small rat-tail connects the bowl to the stem. The seal top join is clearly visible at the back of the spoon, a horizontal join, as opposed to V joint seen on London spoons. The seal top is a decorative baluster casting, of substantial size, decorated with scrolls and gadrooning. This has been described by Tim Kent as a "Salisbury Group A" (Salisbury Silver and its Makers, 1550-1700, Silver Society Journal 3), where similar examples are illustrated on page 16. Kent has recognised that many West Country seal tops of the period were made by one silversmith who specialised in seal top castings, and who distributed them to the silversmiths of the area. Kent also identifies John Smith II as one of the silversmiths who used these (he cites an example of a Salisbury type B found on a seal top spoon by Smith).
This spoon is hallmarked with makers mark IS in a shaped shield struck 4 times, once in the bowl and 3 times on the stem. The bowl mark has some wear but is still clearly visible, IS in a shaped shield (mark M143 in West Country Silver Spoons and their Makers, 1550-1750, by Tim Kent, page 133). The 3 marks on the stem are very worn, but the IS can just be discerned.
John Smith II worked in Taunton between 1660 and 1683, when he moved to Barnstable. This mark is also recorded by Kent in "Barnstable Silver and its Makers, page 26, figs 76-79. Kent notes a number of spoons, including Apostles, seal tops and trefids by John Smith II. Kent also wrote an article entitled "In search of John Smith" in "The Finial", journal of the Silver Spoon Club of Great Britian, Vol 15/03, January 2005, in which he notes Smith was a prolific spoonmaker.
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Seal Top Spoon - Salisbury Group A
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Salisbury Group A finial
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Seal Top Spoon - 1661
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Seal Top Spoon bowl
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John Smith II Taunton makers mark
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Makers mark struck 3 times
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Taunton Seal top spoon
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