File:Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society (1866) (14591186879).jpg

Identifier: transactionsofcu10cumb (find matches)
Title: Transactions of the Cumberland & Westmorland Antiquarian & Archaeological Society
Year: 1866 (1860s)
Authors: Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archæological Society Simpson, James, 1819-1886 Ferguson, Richard Saul, 1837-1900 Collingwood, W. G. (William Gershom), 1854-1932
Subjects:
Publisher: (S.l. : The Society)
Contributing Library: Getty Research Institute
Digitizing Sponsor: Sloan Foundation

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tlethwayt pedigree, broughtdown to the present date. I have run the risk of beingwearisome with all these, to a great extent, small annals.I might easily have said less, I might have said nothing,and left the spoon to speak for itself; but having a gooddeal of Postlethwayt evidence which I found so fullycorroborated by the parish registers of Millom, I thoughtit might not be improper to bring them together in deduc-ing the certain history, for three hundred years, of nothingmore heroic than a small piece of silver. I should add,that I have scarcely before faced the drudgery of a pedi-gree, but I have at least learnt how much out-of-the-waybiography may be contained in, or rather stirred up by, asingle spoon. I have now, as I proposed in the outset, to take thespoon on its own merits, with the view of trying to getat its date. In the absence of hall-marks we have to look,first, at its general form, and secondly, at the details of thehead. POSTLETHWAYTS (2GJ 250 POSTLETHWAYTS OF MILLOM.
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SILVER-GILT SPOON WITH INITIALS OF MEMBERS OF POSTLETHWAYTFAMILY. (Full Size). As POSTLETHWAYTS OF MILLOM. 25I As regards the general form, it may be fairly comparedwith the maidenhead spoon, circa 1540, engraved on page193 of the last edition of Mr. Cripps Old English Plate.These short-handled spoons were probably so made forthe convenience of carrying in the pocket, or gypciere, ata time when everybody carried a spoon of some kind aboutwith him ; and I believe I am right in saying that, unlessthey were made with folding handles, it was the usualshape from the thirteenth to about the middle of the six-teenth century ; and this is also the traditional Scandina-vian type. With so wide a margin we can, therefore, getnothing definite as to date from the form of the spoon.We are therefore, driven back upon the head for informa-tion. I take it for granted that the spoon is of Perpendiculardate, and English work. But Perpendicular is a loosephrase, for that style had its dawnings at Glouces

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