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    The Essential Guide to Old, Antique and Ancient Metal Spoons
    The Essential Guide to Old, Antique and Ancient Metal Spoons
    The Essential Guide to Old, Antique and Ancient Metal Spoons
    Ebook276 pages1 hour

    The Essential Guide to Old, Antique and Ancient Metal Spoons

    By David Villanueva

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    About this ebook

    This illustrated guide to spoons has been produced for finders, collectors, family historians and anyone interested in spoons from earliest times to the nineteenth century. The book is basically divided into three sections: the first covers the development of spoons, particularly silver, from earliest times; the second covers old base metal spoons and the third, some continental spoons, many of which have been found in Britain. Whatever old spoon you may come across or want information on, you should find it in this book.

    The guide starts with a section entitled ‘The Development of the Spoon’, which traces the history of an item we all use on a daily basis, from ancient Egypt up to the Victorian period. Following on from this is the main section of the guide, which lists various types and varieties of spoons. Starting with cones and finials, we then move on to several different types of knops and ends. The illustrations, mostly reproduced from photographs but including some line drawings, are all clear enough to he used for identification purposes. A date range is provided and there is a good deal of information on makers’ marks found on spoons. At the end is a short section on Continental base metal spoons and rounding off the guide is a short bibliography.

    “To have brought together so much information into this concise guide is no mean achievement and for managing to do this David Villanueva should be heartily congratulated. An even greater achievement is to have kept the retail price low. This guide represents absolutely remarkable value for money and is highly recommended.” Peter D. Spencer, The Searcher Magazine.

    CONTENTS: INTRODUCTION, THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE SPOON, OLD BASE METAL SPOONS: Cones, Finials, Acorn Knops, Horned Head Dress Knop, Diamond Point, Maidenhead Knop, Monks Head Knop, Sitting Lion Knop, Writhen Knops, Melon Or Lobed Knop, Hexagonal Or Six-Squared Knop, Apostle Knops, Horsehoof Knop, Stump End, Baluster Knops, Seal Tops, Strawbery Knop, Slipped In The Stalks, Puritan Spoons, Split Ends Or Pied De Biche, Shield End Or Wavy End Spoons, Rounded Ends, Fancy Knopped Spoons: Stag’s Head Knop, Cockerel Knop, Globe Knop, Flattened Cone Knop, Man’s Head Knop, Small Brass Spoons, Pastry Cutter Or Cook’s Spoon, SOME CONTINENTAL BASE METAL SPOONS, BIBLIOGRAPHY

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDavid Villanueva
    Release dateFeb 28, 2014
    ISBN9781310216886
    The Essential Guide to Old, Antique and Ancient Metal Spoons
    Author

    David Villanueva

    David Villanueva (1951- ) was born in Birmingham, England, where he grew up. In the early 1970s his mother bought him a copy of Ted Fletcher's book A Fortune Under Your Feet, which, together with David's great interest in history inspired him to buy a metal detector and take up treasure hunting as a hobby. Family stories about the origins and history behind David's Spanish surname also spawned the hobby of genealogy. A career move brought David to Whitstable in Kent, England, and it was here that David's love of history research developed into great success both in metal detecting and family history research. A little later David felt the urge to put pen to paper and started writing articles for the two British metal detecting magazines - Treasure Hunting and The Searcher – which have published more than two dozens of David's articles between them. Success in writing articles soon led to David's first book: The Successful Treasure Hunter's Essential Dowsing Manual: How to Easily Develop Your Latent Skills to Find Treasure in Abundance, published in both digital format and paperback. To date, David has written over a dozen books in the metal detecting, treasure hunting and family history genres.

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      Book preview

      The Essential Guide to Old, Antique and Ancient Metal Spoons - David Villanueva

      THE ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO OLD, ANTIQUE AND ANCIENT METAL SPOONS

      David Villanueva

      Smashwords Edition

      All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means, including scanning, photocopying, or otherwise without prior written permission of the copyright holder. Copyright © 2014

      Smashwords Edition, License Notes:

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      Table of Contents

      1. INTRODUCTION

      2. THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE SPOON

      3. OLD BASE METAL SPOONS

      3.1. Cones

      3.2. PLATE I

      3.3. Finials

      3.4. Acorn Knops

      3.5. PLATE II

      3.6. Horned Head-dress Knop

      3.7. Diamond Point

      3.8. Maidenhead Knop

      3.9. PLATES III and IV

      3.10. Monk's Head Knop

      3.11. Sitting Lion Knop

      3.12. Writhen Knops

      3.13. Melon or Lobed Knop

      3.14. Hexagonal or Six-squared Knops

      3.15. Apostle Knops

      3.16. Horsehoof Knop

      3.17. Stump End

      3.18. Baluster Knops

      3.19. PLATE V

      3.20. PLATE VI

      3.21. Seal Tops

      3.22. PLATE VII

      3.23. Strawberry Knop

      3.24. PLATE VIII

      3.25. Slipped in the Stalks

      3.26. PLATE IX

      3.27. PLATE X

      3.28. Puritan Spoons

      3.29. PLATE XI

      3.30. PLATE XII

      3.31. Split Ends or Pied de Biche

      3.32. PLATE XIII

      3.33. Shield End or Wavy End Spoons

      3.34. Rounded Ends

      3.35. PLATES XIV and XV

      3.36. FANCY KNOPPED SPOONS

      3.36.1. Stag's Head Knop

      3.36.2. Cockerel Knop

      3.36.3. Globe Knop

      3.36.4. Flattened Cone Knop

      3.36.5. Man's Head Knop

      3.36.6. Small Brass Spoons

      3.36.7. Pastry Cutter or Cook's Spoon

      3.36.8. PLATE XVI

      3.37. MARKS ON SPOONS

      4. SOME CONTINENTAL BASE METAL SPOONS

      5. BIBLIOGRAPHY

      6. GREAT BOOKS IN PRINT BY THE SAME AUTHOR

      1. INTRODUCTION

      Since recreational metal detecting began some 40 years ago, a vast quantity of interesting artefacts have been uncovered. Old or even ancient cutlery are fairly frequent finds by metal detectorists, so it came as no surprise that Simon, a friend of mine, found a complete old base metal spoon on a beach with his metal detector. The real surprise was that we struggled to find any information to identify it and clearly others had met the same problem for I spotted an old base metal spoon, wrongly identified at an exhibition.

      Around a hundred years ago, C J Jackson wrote The Spoon and its history, a paper covering mainly silver spoons from ancient times until the nineteenth century and F G Hilton Price wrote Old Base Metal Spoons, covering base metal spoons between the 14th and 18th centuries. Although there have been a number of books covering eighteenth and nineteenth century spoons since, there seems to have been very little coverage of earlier spoons. This is understandable to some extent as earlier spoons are not readily available to most collectors. The silver varieties are scarce and command very high prices, while almost all the base metal varieties have been lost or melted down and generally the only examples around have been excavated.

      Nevertheless, I thought it would be worthwhile to produce this illustrated guide to spoons for finders, collectors, family historians and anyone interested in spoons from earliest times to the nineteenth century. I have basically divided the book into three sections: the first covers the development of spoons, particularly silver, from earliest times; the second covers old base metal spoons and the third, some continental spoons, many of which have been found in Britain. I sincerely hope that whatever old spoon you may come across or want information on, you will find it in this book.

      2. THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE SPOON

      Undoubtedly the spoon, which is now indispensable in our everyday life, has descended from very ancient times. Certainly as soon as the habit of eating pottage had been acquired, in a manner we would call civilized, there must have been spoons of some kind in use.

      The earliest spoons were probably natural objects, the shells of aquatic animals such as the mussel, scallop, oyster and limpet, being the most readily obtainable natural spoons. The horns of various animals were doubtless also made into spoons as well as drinking vessels in the mists of time and when edge-tools came into use spoons, in all probability, were carved out of wood, bone and ivory.

      Spoons of gold are specifically mentioned in the Bible and presumably, despite the lack of direct evidence, metals less precious than gold were also used for making spoons at least as early as the time of Moses.

      The form and material of the spoons of the ancient Egyptians appear to have differed very considerably. There are examples in the British Museum of Egyptian spoons of flint, of wood and of ivory. The styles of many of these show the symbolism, which prevailed among those ancient peoples. There is one of slate (fig. 1) and two others of carved wood (figs. 2, 8) made in the form of the ankh or crux ansata (cross with handle), the symbol of Isis and life. The bowl of fig. 8 is very similar in form to that of several early Christian spoons and is not unlike the bowl of British spoons from the fourteenth to the seventeenth century.

      A very peculiar spoon of carved ivory (fig. 3) has a shallow circular bowl and a very short handle shaped as the head of Athor or Isis, in her universal mother character typified by the cow, the ears of a cow being attached to the head of a woman. On each side of the head is carved an inflated asp.

      Figs. 1-8 Ancient Egyptian Spoons

      Purer symbolism appears illustrated in a wooden spoon from Thebes, carved in the shape of a lotus bud (fig. 4) symbolic of the productive power of the waters. In another wooden spoon, carved in the shape of a fish (fig. 5) the same productive power is symbolised. In this spoon the bowl is circular, the fish, which is carved on the

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