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 SMP Silver Salon Forums
 Continental / International Silver
 Interesting Danish Spoon
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| Author | Topic: Interesting Danish Spoon |
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Paul Lemieux Posts: 1792 |
posted 03-30-2003 04:51 AM
  
Today I picked up an interesting circa 1903 Danish presentation spoon at a shop. I was hoping somebody might be able to interpret it for me, as doing so involves knowledge of Danish, Latin, and I think the Bible. There are three inscriptions on the spoon. The first is engraved on the scroll motif that wraps around the stippled column shaft. It reads: "Supt hept bren tich iche". Both sides of the pear-shaped bowl are engraved with what appears to be a biblical figure surrounded by an inscription. The front inscription reads: "Maria hielp meg af alle mine nø og ewig meg fraten ewig dø h". The picture seems to be Mary holding baby Jesus, and there is another floating (?) crowned female figure on Mary's left side. The back inscription reads: "In no domini ora pro me". The picture is a crowned man, holding a battle-axe and some kind of circular object, standing atop a human-headed serpent or lizard. My knowledge of biblical imagery is quite limited, so I could be wrong in attributing these scenes to that text. Can anybody tell me what's going on on this spoon? IP: Logged |
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vathek Posts: 966 |
posted 03-30-2003 08:52 AM
Well the latin is something like 'Lord pray for me. IP: Logged |
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hannahl Posts: 11 |
posted 04-04-2003 10:07 PM
a friend told me that in Latin inscriptions there are often abbreviations--in no is probably one of these, for in nomine--we think it sould mean then, 'in the name of the lord, pray for me' IP: Logged |
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Arg(um)entum Posts: 304 |
posted 04-12-2003 11:51 PM
I agree with what has been said about the Latin part; note that it is a general prayer apparently unrelated to the other inscriptions or to the figures depicted. The other two inscriptions are a quite different challenge despite a fairly 'familiar' sound. Few words resemble modern Danish; nor are they German, Dutch or Platt (a Low German vernacular), the other languages involved in the region's political mixing bowl. They must go back to a very old source however the maker of the spoon may have obtained them. The 'Maria' prayer seems to start "Maria help me out of all my distress and forever ...". The end is obscure; 'dø' is Danish for 'die' but what is 'h', is it 'hell' or 'heaven'? Both words start with an 'h' in all these languages. The meaning may have been obvious to the original audience, or it may have been spelled out in full and either the silversmith or one of the earlier copiers ran out of space. Regardless, we can understand enough to again conclude that the prayer is unrelated to the figures. The words wrapped around the handle are beyond me although I am quite confident that they are non-religious; they may relate in some manner to the use of a spoon. As for the identity of the king in the bowl, there is an arguable but less than tight case that it is Saint Knut Lavard (1096-1131). Is he also the little guy with the crown held by the Virgin? The arrangement is unusual but who else could that be? Whose idea was this - the maker of the spoon or someone hundreds of years ago whose work got copied? The main unanswerable question is why this spoon was made at that time. Could it have been made around the 800th anniversary of Knut's birth and only assayed several years later? Another possibility is that it's a replication of an earlier spoon ordered as a result of interest in Lavard in the wake of that anniversary. A lot of questions left! [This message has been edited by Arg(um)entum (edited 04-12-2003).] IP: Logged |
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Paul Lemieux Posts: 1792 |
posted 04-13-2003 12:33 AM
Arg(um)entum, thanks for all the great information! I hadn't expected the spoon to have such an interesting meaning. I didn't think of the young crowned figure was the same person as the king on the back of the spoon. But now that you mention it, it makes a lot of sense. As for the maker's mark, it is indeed "LB". It's a double strike, but definitely those initials. Do you recognize the maker? IP: Logged |
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Paul Lemieux Posts: 1792 |
posted 04-13-2003 12:53 AM
I tried a web search for information on Knut Lavard (variously noted as Knut Lavard Eriksson and Knut "Lavard" Eriksson). I found mostly genealogy pages showing people's descent in various ways from Knut. I did find that he was Duke of South Jutland and that the cause of his death was murder. IP: Logged |
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Arg(um)entum Posts: 304 |
posted 04-13-2003 11:31 AM
I don't have any information on the 'LB' mark, only a note about a Laurizius Bert of Kopenhagen active in the 1920's - he may be a candidate. Knut L. did also rule a small part of the border area independently, giving some justification to representing him as a king. But he was the son of one king of Denmark, as well as brother of a second and father of a third. It was when he was thought to want to claim the Danish crown for himself from his uncle that he was murdered. Any claim to a 'saintly' life is equally tenuous though he wasn't a bad guy by the standards of those times. He owes his status as a saint to the congruance of the interests of both the church and the dynasty in building up his renown. Those genealogist certainly clutter up searches but there is a lot of info on Danish sites and even Norwegian ones. I base the identification mainly on a German hagiographic site that has a credible cross-index of attributes to saints. Of course, that doesn't preclude someone coming across convincing evidence refuting all this. IP: Logged |
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Patrick Vyvyan Posts: 640 |
posted 06-04-2003 12:00 PM
The Norwegian Coronation Spoons illustrated on this page are similar: Norwegian Coronation Spoons IP: Logged |
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Scott Martin Forum Master Posts: 11520 |
posted 07-14-2004 08:37 AM
Paul, I came accross a mention of these silversmith marks (? L. = Laurizius):
IP: Logged |
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