Bright Cut Irish Spoon, Limerick 1800
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Table Spoon - Celtic Point Bright-cut Feather - Limerick circa 1800 by William Ward - 257mm, 74 grams - Ref. No.: LD/8931
An outstanding Irish provincial table spoon with all the attributes that one could wish for from a piece of Limerick silver from this period. The bright-cut engraving of this Celtic Point serving spoon (it is 10" long!) is crisp and the overall condition is excellent. It bears original engraved initials to the terminal cartouche and scratch script initials to the reverse terminal.
This spoon is in the quintessential Limerick flatware pattern for the period - Celtic Bright-cut Feathers. Douglas Bennett in "Collecting Irish Silver" says that for the period 1780 -1800 "many Limerick spoons bear the motif of a fleur-de-lys or of Prince of Wales feathers, these not being in general use elsewhere". This motif may have been used to reinforce the wish in Ireland for the Prince Regent to take over the British crown.
The spoon is marked "WW" twice and "fleur de lys" mark thrice.
The fleur de lys or trefoil mark can be found on Limerick silver by different makers for the period 1780 - 1810. Bowen & O'Brien in "A Celebration of Limerick's Silver" state the theory that "these items were stamped by a municipal officer to indicate conformity with a local ordinance of some nature, such as payment of a tax".
