About this lot
Description
the first with circular bowl 6.5cm diameter including the pouring lip and 3cm deep, the base of the bowl set with a Charles II maundy fourpence (1675), the rim with 'square and circle' decoration, the flat strip mount flaring to a short tubular socket holding the twisted baleen handle topped with a simple silver terminal, overall length 33cm; the second with circular bowl 6cm diameter and 3cm deep, decorated with repoussé symmetrical designs, the rim with indecipherable lettering indicating construction by hammering out a silver coin, the base of the bowl set with a George III shilling (1763), the flat strip mount flaring to a short tubular socket holding the twisted baleen handle topped with a simple silver terminal, overall length 37cm; the third with oval bowl 7cm wide, the flat strip mount flaring to a short tubular socket holding the twisted baleen handle topped with a simple silver terminal, overall length 34cm; the fourth with a circular fluted bowl 7cm diameter including the pouring lip, the flat strip mount flaring to a short tubular socket holding the twisted baleen handle topped with a simple silver terminal, overall length 36cm, monogrammed (4)
Footnote: Punch ladles which incorporate silver coins in the base of the bowls are rarely hallmarked and without a hallmark it is impossible to put an exact date on these pieces. The coin should not be taken as a guide as to the age of the piece. It is possible, for example, that the date on the coin insert might reflect some personal connection with the owner. Instead, dating should rely on the style and characteristics of the ladle itself. This style of ladle was made by beating out a large silver coin, usually a crown, into the shape of the bowl. Silversmiths started using silver coins instead of sheet silver when the wholesale silver price was greater than the face value of the coins in their pocket - and so it would have been cheaper to use coins than to buy the same weight in new silver. The central coin would be unbeaten filler. It is incontrovertible that coins were beaten into bowls because some bowls still retain the coin impress around the rim. Of course, destroying the coin of the realm in this manner was illegal, so they could not be sent to an assay office for hallmarking or it is likely that they would have been confiscated and destroyed. Typically, the handles were made of baleen (often described as ‘whalebone’). Most, if not all British baleen of the 18th-century came from the seasonal Greenland Right Whale (Bowhead) fishery of the Eastern Arctic. Baleen strips were extracted on site, bundled, and taken home to the silversmiths for further refinement. There they could be steamed until they became malleable and then shaped or twisted as desired.
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