This remarkable lovespoon is clearly the work of a professional spoon maker, such is the precision and balance of its design and execution.
The handle, rounded at the top and base, is inset with five panels of printed cotton behind glass, and surrounded with delicately rendered designs including stylized “tall trees”, chequer borders, six-pointed stars, two “weeping trees” and the initials and date A P 1861 in red and black sealing wax. Surmounted by an original, axe-head shaped gilt brass handle for hanging and with a long, stepped neck extending to a large, ovoid bowl.
In excellent condition with only minor losses to the sealing wax around the glass panels.
West Wales, probably Carmarthenshire or Cardiganshire, 1861.
38.5 cms high, 42 cms including the handle for hanging, 3 inches wide.
The “tall trees” are similar to ones flanking the striking 5-storey house in a sampler worked by Mary Evans aged 13 in July, 1834 and now in the collection of Carmarthenshire museum, Abergwili, Carmarthen.
The following publications include images of, and references to, lovespoons:
Treen by Edward H Pinto
Domestic Utensils of Wood by Owen Evan-Thomas
Treen for the Table by Jonathan Levi
The W J Shepherd Collection of Treen Sotheby`s 30th November 1983
The following hold collections of lovespoons on public display:
Y Gaer Museum, Art Gallery and Library, Glamorgan Street, Brecon
St Fagans National Museum of History, St Fagans, near Cardiff
Amgueddfa Ceredigion Museum, Aberystwyth.
Carmarthenshire Museum, Abergwili, Carmarthen
This remarkable lovespoon is clearly the work of a professional spoon maker, such is the precision and balance of its design and execution.
The handle, rounded at the top and base, is inset with five panels of printed cotton behind glass, and surrounded with delicately rendered designs including stylized “tall trees”, chequer borders, six-pointed stars, two “weeping trees” and the initials and date A P 1861 in red and black sealing wax. Surmounted by an original, axe-head shaped gilt brass handle for hanging and with a long, stepped neck extending to a large, ovoid bowl.
In excellent condition with only minor losses to the sealing wax around the glass panels.
West Wales, probably Carmarthenshire or Cardiganshire, 1861.
38.5 cms high, 42 cms including the handle for hanging, 3 inches wide.
The “tall trees” are similar to ones flanking the striking 5-storey house in a sampler worked by Mary Evans aged 13 in July, 1834 and now in the collection of Carmarthenshire museum, Abergwili, Carmarthen.
The following publications include images of, and references to, lovespoons:
Treen by Edward H Pinto
Domestic Utensils of Wood by Owen Evan-Thomas
Treen for the Table by Jonathan Levi
The W J Shepherd Collection of Treen Sotheby`s 30th November 1983
The following hold collections of lovespoons on public display:
Y Gaer Museum, Art Gallery and Library, Glamorgan Street, Brecon
St Fagans National Museum of History, St Fagans, near Cardiff
Amgueddfa Ceredigion Museum, Aberystwyth.
Carmarthenshire Museum, Abergwili, Carmarthen
