Cork Bright-cut Star Silver Dessert Spoon, 1775

This is a beautiful Irish provincial silver dessert spoon with super-crisp decoration and a rare maker's mark.

Celtic Point with Bright-cut Star was the most Irish of flatware designs in the latter years of the 18th century and this is a great example with no personalised engravings (nor any erasures) to the front terminal. This dessert spoon has a proportionately small bowl in comparison to the handle and can be compared with the masking spoons of Scotland - n.b. the bowl is the original size and shape and not reduced/adapted.

The spoon is marked to the reverse of the stem with a "STER" for Sterling mark, plus an "IRH" maker's mark which is almost certainly for the Cork maker John Irish. The condition is excellent with lovely crisp decoration.