posted 05-20-2008 07:04 PM            

This is a Hanoverian tablespoon, London, 1708, by Andrew Archer. It has a rattail in place of the usual sharp ridge along the front of the stem.

And this is a Hanoverian teaspoon with maker's mark only, very worn but seems to be that entered by Thomas Hannam in 1720. It has a more massive rattail along the stem.

Next is a Dognose tablespoon. It has had a hard life. The only mark still legible is the leopard's head erased. One side of the stem has been slightly trimmed, presumably to remove damage. It too has a massive rattail down the stem. Gask, Old Silver Spoons of England, Plate XXVII, illustrates a similar spoon of 1714. It seems likely my spoon is also from around that date.

Over the years I have only seen a handful of spoons with the massive rattail feature, and only the example I own and its pair with the more modest rattail. On the evidence of the three spoons shown I might be tempted to suggest that the more modest version came first to be superseded by the more massive version, though neither version caught on sufficiently to become widespread. However, three examples, only one of which can be properly dated, cannot be taken as definitive.

So to the question, which is simply whether anybody can offer more information about the date range for this rattail feature or about known makers who used it.

I should add that the more modest rattail re-appears on slightly later Hanoverian spoons as part of a rare decorative pattern - the sort of thing that came from the De Lamerie workshop. The example below is probably from the 1730s. It is unmarked which was not unusual when De Lamerie (or others) were supplying items directly to a customer.

posted 05-22-2008 11:14 AM            

"Divided by a single language" as they say!

Yes, I am referring to what you describe as a midrib, or what seems to be a variant of it. On English spoons at least the rib is not a normal feature of dognose spoons but appears with the Hanoverian style as a long sharp ridge down the front of the stem, shrinking over time as you describe. My picture shows the rib or ridge on a dessertspoon of 1711 - possibly a bit fuzzily but it was the first picture to come to hand.