THE TICKTUM COLLECTION

We felt that to place all the standard London spoons in one chapter covering a period of almost three hundred years would make the catalogue both unwieldy and unbalanced.

There were two natural breaks where we could quite easily separate the items, 1697 when the Britannia Standard was introduce, and 1720 on the return to normal sterling. We chose the latter because in our view the introduction of the Hanoverian Style plus the increasing use of spoons for specific purposes was a watershed between the old medieval approach and what we take for granted today in terms of a composite canteen of cutlery. Excluding Scarlett and his apprentices which number some 20 items, for this period, there are 45.

We have been fortunate as regards London examples in obtaining most styles over the period when they were most commonly in use. Of course there are gaps in both areas particularly the early period i.e. pre 1550, but the examples from those times are now extremely rare and very expensive. It is also the case in a few instances that we have obtained provincial examples.

As well as the various types of which Apostles, Seal Tops, Stump Ends, Slip Ends, Puritans, Trefids and Wavy Ends are all represented, we have also tried to obtain examples by the key makers of important periods of change to illustrate who was in the vanguard of the new fashion. An interesting example of this is the very early Trefid by Benedict Prosser, not a well known name but at 1668 right in the front of the change to Trefids, compared to one of the same date by Lawrence Coles, a really important maker operating for about 40 years in all.

Not all the spoons are in pristine condition but for us they all fulfil a role as a reference point in some way. In these early periods it is not always possible to get examples of supreme quality and condition, and the Prosser is quite worn. However these examples are balanced, which is the way we look at the Collection by the quite exceptional examples such as 1585 Seal Top, the c 1630 Jygges Seal Top, the 1685 John King Trefid and the 1708 Thomas Spackman Wavy End Baster, to name a few.

Our general aim now if at all possible is to widen the Collection with examples of the early items for specific uses. So far we have managed to get representatives for Trefid, Wavy End, Early Hanoverian, Teaspoons plus Dessert together with Wavy End and Hanoverain Basters. Unfortunately there is no Trefid Baster and that will probably elude us given the extreme rarity and price. Other missing examples are by Hewitt and Lound both with Norfolk connections.