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An Edward VII Albany pattern dessertspoon with Royal associations, by George Jackson and David Fullerton London 1901, engraved H.M. King Edward VII/Wick Hill House/Bracknell 25th January mdccccii [1902] .
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The Reading Observer for 1st February 1902 recorded that 'Bracknell was honoured on Saturday [25th January] with the presence of King Edward VII., his Majesty paying a private visit to Wick Hill House, the residence of Mr. C. St. George Littledale, where lunch was partaken of. The news of the Royal visit was kept as quiet as possible, but somehow it leaked out on Friday night, and there was consequently a large crowd of people to welcome his Majesty'.

Clement St. George Royds Littledale (1851-1931) was descended from wealthy Lancashire cotton brokers and Mayors of Liverpool. As soon as he came into his inheritance in 1874 Littledale began to travel the world, including the West Indies, North America and Japan, and shooting many specimen animals. While in Yokohama he met Theresa Harris Scott and her husband William, with whom he travelled for 18 months including a trip to Kashmir. Following William's death of Typhoid in 1875 Littledale married his widow in 1877. The couple honeymooned in Kashmir and then travelled almost continuously to all parts of the world collecting animal trophies and live plant specimens for the Natural History Museum in London and other museums. Their greatest exploit was a 14 month journey to Tibet in 1895, accompanied by Tanny (their fox terrier), when they got to within 49 miles of Lhasa. While on that expedition Littledale gained his prize trophy- the head of an ibex shot in the Tien Shan mountains.

In 1902 the Reading Observer went on to note that 'after luncheon the King inspected the valuable collection of trophies which Littledale has secured during his many travels in Africa and elsewhere'. According to a letter sent by Littledale to his friend, Baron Speck von Sternburg, 'Edward VII came over to lunch and walked off with my best Ibex [the one one shot in the Tien Shan mountains]'. The Royal Collection currently contains 5 ibex heads- one of which may be the one that was once so prized by Littledale.

Five fiddle, thread and shell dessertspoons, London 1885 by Aldwinckle and Slater, crested with a demi griffin.
Price: £340.00

A George III silver-gilt Old English pattern dessertspoon, by Paul Callard London 1762, crested for James, 2nd Duke of Chandos (1708-1771) and his grandson-in-law Richard , 1st Marquess of Buckingham and later 1st Duke of Buckingham and Chandos (1776-1839).
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This spoon was originally purchased by Henry Brydges, 2nd Duke of Chandos (1708-1771) who was described by George II as "a hot headed, passionate, half-witted coxcomb". Chandos inherited an estate deeply in debt due to the losses the family had suffered in the falling stock market of the 'South Sea Bubble'. As a result the family's home, Cannons Place in Middlesex, which had only been completed in 1724 at a cost of £200,000. had to be demolished in 1747. The resulting architectural elements and stonework were sold as building materials and the site is now occupied by North London Collegiate School.

Chandos married three times- firstly to Lady Anne Bruce, daughter of the Earl of Ailesbury, and thirdly to Elizabeth Major, daughter of Sir John Major, Baronet. His second marriage, however, was less conventional. In 1744 he married Anne Wells who had been a chambermaid in Newbury. They met when she was being sold by her then husband in the yard of the Pelican Inn at Newbury where Chandos was staying. Chandos, taken with her beauty, bought her and subsequently married her (following the death of her first husband).

The second crest on this spoon is that of Richard Temple-Nugent-Grenville (1776-1839), 1st Marquess of Buckingham and later 1st Duke of Buckingham and Chandos, who married the 2nd Duke of Chandos' granddaughter and heiress in 1796. Buckingham was part of the Grenville political dynasty (his grandfather serving as Prime Minister from 1763-1765, his cousin held the same office from 1783-1806 and his uncle from 1806-1807). He inherited all of the remaining Chandos estates and property, including this spoon through his wife and many other estates from his many relations. As the crest on the reverse of this spoon is underneath the gilding and accompanied by a Marquesses' coronet both the engraving of that crest and the gilding must have happened between 1813, when Buckingham inherited his Marquessate, and 1822 when he received his Dukedom.

However the wealth was short lived as nine years after Buckingham's death his son went bankrupt, with debts totalling over 1 million pounds, and the contents of the great house at Stowe (now the site of Stowe School) were sold by Christie's in 1848. This spoon appears to have been sold to Mr. Wells as part of lot 285, 286 or 287 of the seventeenth day of the sale- each lot contained 'Twelve plain [silver gilt] dessert spoons' (Wells bought all three lots).

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An Admiralty pattern dessertspoon with die cast crowned anchor, by Hunt and Roskell London 1865.
Price: £275.00

3 spoons available

A Celtic-point dessert spoon with wrigglework border, by Carden Terry of Cork circa 1790, crested for Sweet or Swete.
Price: £225.00
Branches of the Swete family held several estates in Counties Cork and Galway in the eighteenth century. However the main branch of the family appears to have been based at Greenville (formerly Kilglass), County Cork.

(6 spoons available)

An Admiralty pattern dessert spoon with die-cast crowned anchor crest, by William Theobalds London 1840 .
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Admiralty pattern (Old English pattern with the die-cast crest of the Royal Navy) is rare and was supplied exclusively to the officers and wardrooms of Royal Navy ships and to the Admiralty from the late 1830s (the earliest recorded pieces are teaspoons of 1838. It seems to have been discontinued by the outbreak of the World War One. Each piece also carries the Broad Arrow mark to denote official issue.

A George III silver-gilt fiddle thread dessert fork and spoon, by George Smith (III) London circa 1775-1780, crested for ELLIS
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These unusually early examples of fiddle, thread and shell carry two different GS maker's marks (the spoons with the GS in script registered by George Smith in 1774 and the forks with GS in capitals that is believed to appear in the mark registers missing from Goldsmiths' Hall). The appearance of these two marks on different parts of a flatware service using identical dies indicates that the GS mark in capitals was a second mark used by George Smith III (possibly registered between the end of his partnership with Thomas Evans in 1772 and the beginning of the new largeworkers register in 1773).

A George III silver-gilt Old English thread dessert spoon and fork, made in Dublin the spoon 1793, the fork 1797, engraved with the crest of the 1st Earl of Bandon (1755-1830).
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Francis Bernard of Castle Bernard, near Bandon in County Cork was created Baron Bandon in 1793, Viscount Bernard in 1795 and Earl of Bandon in 1800. He sat in the Westminster Parliament from 1801-1830 as one of the original Irish representative peers.

A George III Old English pattern dessertspoon with Celtic point, by John Toleken of Cork circa 1800, crested on the handle for Lindsay of Maryville, County Cork and initialled {IL} on the heel.
Price: £155.00

4 spoons available

The initials IL are probably for John Lindsay of Blackrock and Maryville, co. Cork who died in 1802.

Two fiddle, thread and shell pattern dessertspoons, London 1894 by Slater, Slater and Holland crested with a demi griffin.
Price: £155.00

A Victorian Canova pattern dessertspoon, by George Adams London 1863, engraved {JACOB} on the cartouche .
Price: £135.00
Canova pattern was introduced by Chawner and Company in about 1850 and was exhibited at the Great Exhibition, the following year. The design of the pattern incorporates designs based on sculptures by Antonio Canova (1757-1822).

An Old English thread and drop dessert spoon with flute down front of stem, London by George Smith circa 1780, crested with a dolphin naiant out of a coronet as used by the BRICKDALE family.
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The crest on this spoon is that of Brickdale. The die is an unusual one but one piece (part of lot 74 of the Gubbins Collection sold by Bonhams in 2002) was found with script initials JEB for John Brickdale (d. 1765), a clothier and undertaker of Bristol, and his wife Elizabeth. Their son Matthew (1735-1831) is reputed to have inherited £100,000 from his father and served as MP for Bristol from 1768-1774 when he lost the seat, by a small margin, to Edmund Burke who wrote of him '[He] does his duty very reputably and is a diligent and independent Member of Parliament'. He regained the seat in 1780 and held it until 1790 after which he was elected mayor of the city in 1791 but refused the office. He did not stand for Parliament again and is reputed to have ‘spent enormous sums of money in his electoral contests, which left him in reduced circumstances in his old age’. Further details of his parliamentary career are available at www.historyofparliamentonline.org    

A George III Old English pattern dessertspoon with wrigglework engraving on both sides of the stem, by William Sumner and Richard Crossley London 1775-1781, crested with an ostrich on a chapeau for Co(o)ke .
Price: £125.00

3 spoons available

A George II Hanoverian pattern dessertspoon, London 1749 probably by TD (ascribed to Thomas Devonshire), engraved {Pickwick} inside the bowl, .
Price: £95.00

The unusual engraving in this bowl could relate to the Pickwick family who rose from humble origins to become prominent citizens of Bath in the 18th century. Moses Pickwick was a foundling discovered in the late 17th century in an area of Corsham (Wiltshire) known as Pickwick. In addition to being the primary investor in the Somerset Coal canal Moses' grandson Eleazer (b. 1749) ran a coaching business that came to be run from an inn just opposite the Pump Rooms in Bath called the White Hart (this was demolished in 1869) . The Inn was referred to by Jane Austen and it is believed that Charles Dickens took the title character inThe Pickwick Papers from the family who subsequently took the name of the more prestigious Sainsbury family from whom they were also descended.

A William IV Fiddle pattern dessertspoon with rat-tail, by Edward Power (retailed by Twycross) Dublin 1835, engraved {Cavan Grand Jury} .
Price: £85.00

County Cavan, an area once forming part of the Kingdom of Breifnie, came under Norman influence from the late 12th century and since the early 17th century has been part of Ulster.

A Grand Jury is a group of citizens empowered by law to conduct legal proceedings, investigate potential criminal conduct, and determine whether criminal charges should be brought. A Grand Jury is separate from the courts, which do not preside over its functioning. In Ireland Grand Juries were active from the mediaeval period onwards and mainly functioned as local government authorities at the county level (the jurors were usually drawn from the larger landowners and appointed by their peers).

From 1691 to 1793 Roman Catholics in Ireland were excluded from membership of a Grand Jury, irrespective of wealth, and from in 1840 the Municipal Corporations Act (Ireland) weakened the power of the traditional membership. When the Local Government Act (Ireland) was passed in 1898 and saw the creation of democratically elected County Councils these took over many of the former functions of the Grand Juries. They were discontinued in Southern Ireland in 1922 and Northern Ireland in 1969.

A William IV Fiddle pattern dessertspoon with rat-tail, by Edward Power (retailed by Twycross) Dublin 1834, engraved {Cavan Grand Jury} .
Price: £85.00

County Cavan, an area once forming part of the Kingdom of Breifnie, came under Norman influence from the late 12th century and since the early 17th century has been part of Ulster.

A Grand Jury is a group of citizens empowered by law to conduct legal proceedings, investigate potential criminal conduct, and determine whether criminal charges should be brought. A Grand Jury is separate from the courts, which do not preside over its functioning. In Ireland Grand Juries were active from the mediaeval period onwards and mainly functioned as local government authorities at the county level (the jurors were usually drawn from the larger landowners and appointed by their peers).

From 1691 to 1793 Roman Catholics in Ireland were excluded from membership of a Grand Jury, irrespective of wealth, and from in 1840 the Municipal Corporations Act (Ireland) weakened the power of the traditional membership. When the Local Government Act (Ireland) was passed in 1898 and saw the creation of democratically elected County Councils these took over many of the former functions of the Grand Juries. They were discontinued in Southern Ireland in 1922 and Northern Ireland in 1969.

An Old English dessertspoon, by Christopher Fly Woods and Thomas Filkin of London (active 1770-1775), initialled {S} .
Price: £85.00

When Judith Callard, widow of spoonmaker Paul Callard, retired from business around 1772, the business begun by her husband was continued by her son-in-law and her husband's former apprentice, Christopher Fly Woods and his business partner Thomas Filkin.

An Old English pattern dessert spoon, by Samuel Eaton London 1762, crested with a pineapple for PERRYN/PERRIN .
Price: £75.00

This spoon once formed part of a larger set, eight of which can be seen as stock number 5468 at the top of this page.

An Old English dessertspoon, by John Lambe 1779, engraved with the arms of Lucy Grey (neé Danvers) .
Price: £65.00

 The arms on these dessertspoons are those of Grey impaling Danvers. In 1748 the Hon. John Grey (c. 1728-1777), younger son of the 3rd Earl of Stamford, married Lucy Danvers, daughter of Sir Joseph Danvers 1st Baronet of Swithland. Hon. John Grey was MP for Bridgnorth (1754-1768) and Tregony (1768-1774) and served as Clerk of the Board of Green Cloth from 1754-1777.

An Old English dessertspoon, by George Smith and William Fearn London 1789, crested with 3 stalks of wheat- possibly for Scott-Moncrieff .
Price: £60.00
2 spoons available

A George III Old English pattern dessertspoon with later engraved decoration, by Thomas Chawner London 1774 .
Price: £58.00

An Old English dessertspoon, by William Eley and George Pierrepoint London 1777, initialled {MAC} .
Price: £55.00

William Eley and George Pierrepoint were only in partnership for a short time — between 11th November 1777 and 3rd November 1778 (when William Eley registered a new mark on his own).

A fiddle pattern dessert spoon, by James Barber George Cattle and William North, York 1827, crested with a demi-lion rampant holding a flag, azure, on which a cross Or.
Price: £55.00