posted 12-22-2014 11:18 AM            

A Christmas present to myself, but first the bad news before anybody rushes to alert me to it. Attached to the exuberant rococo handle of this sifter is a replacement bowl, simple in style though nicely pierced. I don’t think it looks bad despite the mismatch in styles. I guess the original bowl would have been some sort of extravagantly fluted shell.

So, why am I pleased to have this despite knowing what is wrong with it? Well, I like to be able to show the way in which fashions evolved. This handle gives me an example of a particular rococo style that fed into the later Onslow pattern: cut off the up-turned top of the terminal and you would have a proto-Onslow.

posted 07-01-2015 06:12 PM            

I took a bit of a risk with an absentee bid at an auction when I hadn’t been able to visit and view the ladle. It looked reasonable in the catalogue photographs but the auctioneer’s condition report did refer to a possible repair. Now that I have it in my hand I can see this possible repair, but it is not something that hits you in the eye or that shows up in a photograph. The handle and the bowl were made separately and soldered together. I think the solder may simply have become more evident after some 250 years of use, rather than have needed re-doing. Either way I am happy with the piece. Because of this possible repair, and perhaps because the maker had not been identified, it proved to be far more affordable than these heavy and decorative early items usually are.

The ladle had been catalogued as 1759 but that was a misreading of the gothic date letter and it actually dates from 1769. The maker’s mark was said to be too worn to read. However, a private buyer has more time to study marks than a busy auctioneer and I am confident that the shadowy remains actually read IR for John Romer. It doesn’t take much research to come across a number of Rococo soup tureens made by Romer in the 1760s. This ladle presumably accompanied one such tureen.

It was made later than the one that started this thread, at a time when Old English had largely replaced Hanoverian as the normal pattern for basic flatware. This has influenced the design of the ladle: the stem end now curves down rather than up.

Some of my pleasure in this new acquisition comes from having a bit more Rococo in the collection and some from the business of identifying the marks. It can be more fun than acquiring a pristine piece with documentary marks where there is nothing more to do than gloat over the new possession.

posted 12-08-2016 07:00 PM            

A soup ladle by Philip Roker II, London, 1748. The foliate terminal is similar in style to those on naturalistic teaspoons of the period but the effect is rather different on this large and heavy soup ladle. The engraved crest of a demi eagle displayed out of a mural coronet is used by several families so does not really help to provide a bit of provenance.

A fancy front sauce ladle by WC, London, c.1760. The marks are too closed up and worn to read the date letter. I was tempted to say by William Cripps but there are too many makers around with WC initials for me to be certain. Of its two crests, the top one does not feature in my edition of Fairbairn and the lower, later one is shared by several families so again of no real help as far as provenance is concerned.

posted 12-09-2016 09:47 AM            

I usually aim for pieces that talk to me and sometimes these dented or tired pieces do just that.

And remember, a lot of us will never sell these pieces anyway, so if you enjoy them that is what is most important!

Great ladle by the way!

posted 12-09-2016 12:12 PM            

Our interests are very diverse in the world of silver. So we can't help when our current focus causes us to explore/purchase and we end up with a divergent mini collection. Once our interest/research has been satisfied, then sometimes we are lucky to sell our explorations/research/"mini collection" for break even or a profit.

Then there are the rescues we never intended to purchase but couldn't let something great go to melt. With the shrinking marketplace our unintended mini collections of rescues is not so mini. And these days, since it is harder to find homes for the rescues, unfortunately we are doing less rescues.

Perhaps our largest homogeneous collection is our reference books and ephemera.

Knowledge is the basis for buying smart. But the Internet has created a lot of noise and often inaccuracies .... resulting in less persons who really know the subject and therefore a shrinking marketplace. Unfortunately new opportunity to collect for profit has been undermined by the Internet noise ... just because something has a high price on the internet doesn't mean it actually sells for that price.

posted 11-16-2017 12:56 PM            

Sorry about the quality of these photos. I hadn’t meant to use them but suddenly found I needed something to test out Scott’s latest success with the photo-hosting site. Anyhow, this is a recently acquired rococo soup ladle by William Turner, London, 1755. The crest is for Clan Fraser of Lovat. It is not really visible in the photo however!