posted 06-26-2010 12:14 PM            

Anyhow, his item was correctly identified as a basting spoon, the term generally used these days for such large, early spoons or ladles. However, I do not think this was necessarily the term used when the spoon was made or the purpose for which it was intended.

In early 18th century inventories I have seen a base metal “basting ladle” recorded among kitchen items and a “soup ladle” among the silver which was normally listed separately. This is at a time when soup ladles with curved handles had yet to be introduced so I believe the latter item must have been one of these “basting spoons”.

Of course, a wealthy household may well have had some silver for kitchen use. The range of specialized silver items was much smaller than it was to become in the 19th century, so large-bowled spoons such as these probably had a range of uses in both kitchen and dining room.

My pictures show three examples of so-called basting spoons:

Cannon handled, 15.8 inches long, by Robert Cooper, London, 1705,

Wood-handled, 15.5 inches long, by Humphrey Payne, London, 1720,

Hanoverian, 14.3 inches long, by Paul Hanet, London, 1738.