Tablespoon

Date1849-1882

Artist/Maker Thomas Yates

MediumPewter

DimensionsOL: 9"; W (bowl): 1 7/8"

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1984-159

DescriptionTablespoon with pointed oval bowl and downturned rounded handle with mid-rib; fancy mulit-lobed drop on back of bowlLabel TextBirmingham was a significant center for the production of pewter in nineteenth-century England. In this period of the trade's decline (with the clear choice of consumers being for fashionable and inexpensive white-bodied ceramics), the remaining Birmingham pewterers had to be resourceful in exploiting new opportunities, whether for pub mugs and measures, beer machines and bar fittings for public houses, or for blanks for electroplated wares after 1840 and exports to various parts of the empire, in particular, Australia. Prominent among these pewterers was the Yates family.

This late spoon of Old English type is decidedly of nineteenth-century character. Heft has replaced slender grace. The pronounced ridge on the underside of the handle is due to the insertion of an iron/steel wire for strength. The raised drop on the underside of the bowl has been given greater prominence, and its pierced design is in the gothic taste.
Inscription(s)NoneMark(s)"THOMAS YATES/STEEL WIRE/WIRE TY" within separate oblong reserves on underside of handle (Cotterell 5346; Homer and Hall, no. 47).ProvenanceEx Coll: Fred Bishop Vellacott
Purchased from Robin Bellamy Antiques, Witney, Oxfordshire.