William Cawdell Silver Seal Top Spoon, London 1599

William Cawdell was the premier silver spoonmaker of the late Elizabethan period and this seal top spoon was made by him in the final few years of the 16th century.

The spoon has all the expected features of an Elizabeth I spoon: fig-shaped bowl, hexagonal stem and cushion-shaped, seal finial which shows a very obvious V-notch for the original join to the stem. The bowl of the spoon is rather scratched and pitted to give it a very antique appearance! The bowl retains it's original shape with very little wear and the seal terminal holds on to vestiges of the original gilding.

The hallmarks are excellent with very clear examples of each of the stamps including the "C" enclosing a "W" maker's mark of William Cawdell. 

William Cawdell was the most important spoonmaker of the late 16th and early 17th centuries. He was apprenticed to Patrick Brue in 1576 and was an important link in the master/apprenticeship dynasty of London spoonmakers.His output was prolific and the quality of his spoons were the best of the late Tudor period. His distinctive style of maker's mark was later copied by his apprentices (James Cluatt, Martin Cottrell and John Jermyn) that succeeded him.