Newcastle Silver Runcible Spoon, 1855 Lister & Sons

This is a first class example of a mid-Victorian fiddle & shell pattern silver runcible spoon (aka pickle or chutney spoon or spork).

This spoon is in excellent original condition with a good crisp shell motif to the handle and an original engraved letter "R" to the front terminal. Made by Lister & Sons, it has the further bonus of being stamped with a set of Newcastle hallmarks.

The runcible spoon appears in two works by Edward Lear: The Owl & The Pussy Cat ("They dined on mince and slices of quince, which they ate with a runcible spoon") and Twenty-Six Nonsense Rhymes and Pictures ("The Dolomphious Duck, who caught Spotted Frogs for her dinner with a Runcible Spoon").