Honiton Silver Laceback Trefid Spoon, 1706 Richard Sweet

This is a stunning West Country silver laceback trefid spoon made by Richard Sweet of Honiton.

This good-looking Queen Anne period spoon has typical laceback decoration to the reverse of the bowl and a less common variant of the decoration to the front terminal. The spoon benefits from bearing contemporary dot-pricked betrothal iinitials to the reverse terminal with the bonus of the date "1706" which is helpful in providing an accurate date of manufacture.

The spoon is in excellent condition with good laceback decoration to both sides, superb marks and a fine antique patina. The maker's mark is clearly and deeply struck four times to the stem and are documentary examples of the "RS in a decorative shield" mark.

The Sweet family were an important group of spoon makers in the West Country and were dispersed around several towns of the area - Crewkerne, Dunster, Honiton & Chard amongst them. The maker of this spoon is Richard Sweet III of Honiton who lived from 1679 to 1737. See “West Country Silver Spoons” by Tim Kent page 135-6 for further information.