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A.L. Coan ladle

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Author	Topic: A.L. Coan ladle
ahwt Posts: 2334 Registered: Mar 2003	posted 02-24-2010 02:53 PM I have been looking through old stuff lately as the weather has been terrible here and it is still too cold to work in the garden. This ladle turned up and it is one that has always been fun to use. It is a regular soup or punch ladle, but the handle as an arc that is more extreme than any other ladle I have seen. The interesting thing about it is that it is very comfortable to use and with just a slight turn of the wrist the liquid can be poured from the ladle into a cup or bowl. The curve of the arc is very smooth, but since I have never seen another ladle with such an extreme arc I suspect that one the previous owners sent the ladle to a silver smith to be modified. Has anyone seen a ladle with a handle like this? The mark is for Abraham L. Coan and he was in Mobile from 1833 until he died in 1841. IP: Logged
agleopar Posts: 850 Registered: Jun 2004	posted 02-24-2010 09:50 PM My guess is that this has been bent just above the shoulders and again near the fiddle handle. If you want to and you may not, it can be bent back by hand - it will not hurt it. IP: Logged
ahwt Posts: 2334 Registered: Mar 2003	posted 02-25-2010 07:56 AM Agleopar, Thanks for the encouragement to bend the handle back. I think right now I will leave it as is - the ladle really does work well in this configuration and every time I use it I get a chuckle thinking about a previous owner "improving" the design. I can see him showing off his handy work to his wife as she rolls her eyes in wonder. IP: Logged
middletom Posts: 467 Registered: May 2004	posted 03-02-2010 05:06 PM It may be that the bend of the handle is original. Over the years I've seen a number of different approaches to the bend of a ladle. We once had a visitor whom was attending an art school, and she became visibly upset that we bend our ladle handles at all. She said her teacher had taught her that ladle handles go straight up from the bowl, and she could not understand why we bend ours. So, there are many different points of view on such matters. middletom IP: Logged
Dale Posts: 2132 Registered: Nov 2002	posted 03-02-2010 06:18 PM I'm with Tom on that. It looks like a ladle designed to not fall into the tureen. I have seen a wide range of ladle angles, but never thought to measure any. IP: Logged
jersey Posts: 1203 Registered: Feb 2005	posted 03-02-2010 06:23 PM A beautiful ladle anyway you bend it! To me it makes sense that handle being bent would cup over the serving bowl as to keep it from falling into the serving bowl. If it were straight it could slide in, it has happened to me. I also understand most bowls have a cover with room for the handle to come thru. That said, I have more bowls without covers than with, due mostly to breakage or being misplaced amongst other possibilities. Jersey IP: Logged
ahwt Posts: 2334 Registered: Mar 2003	posted 03-04-2010 11:53 PM Thanks all for your interesting comments. One thing I have noticed is that soup ladles from the late 1700s and very early 1800s seem to have a longer handle than those from 1830s and later. A long handled ladle with a slight bend seems to operate the same as a short handled soup ladle with a more pronounced bend. The art student that liked straight handles should pour from one at a lengthy party. After this experience I think they would change their mind. IP: Logged

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