Object Biography by Meryl Ritchie
My favourite silver spoon has lived in my jumbled kitchen utensils’ drawer for at least forty years. It came to me in a bag of kitchen items from my parents when they moved interstate. Over the years it has become my most loved cooking companion. Together we have mixed and served food for our family in a production line of cakes or sweet dishes like trifle or fruit salad. When buffed to reveal its lustrous glow, it serves as an elegant serving spoon. The only clues to its past are the single letter ‘C’ in a flourished script engraved on the front of the handle, along with my mother’s comment, that it was passed down by her forebears.
Being 22.3cm long, it is overlarge, compared to an eating utensil used today. It weighs 97g, holds 22ml water volume and balances perfectly halfway along its length. It has some scratches from being stored with other items and over time the bowl lip has become sharper, but it fits comfortably in my hand making it a pleasure to use.
It is made in a fiddle back design, introduced in Britain in the early 19th century, and decorated in a thread and shell pattern, which is impressed onto one side.[1]
There are four hallmarks and a maker’s mark on the back handle of the spoon. These hallmarks were pressed into the silver by the London Assay Office at the Goldsmiths’ Hall where pieces have been tested for purity for centuries.[2],[3] The lion passant verifies the piece is 92.5% silver, the other 7.5% being a strengthening alloy like copper allowing for function as an eating utensil. The leopard head denotes the piece was tested in London and the particular letter E indicates the year it was assayed,1840.[4] A sovereign’s mark, in this case Queen Victoria, indicates duty was paid on the object.[5]
Figure 1. Photograph of Hallmarks on William Chandless tablespoon 1840, object held by M Ritchie, Colac, Victoria.
The maker’s mark is a WC within a rectangle shield with rounded ends. Between the two capital letters, the top and bottom of the rectangle point inward slightly. It is the hallmark of William Chandless who registered this mark in 1841 but had used it for some months before it was registered at the Hall.[6]
It was not only artisans who had served a silversmith apprenticeship who could be issued with this mark. The term could be applied to others working in the precious metals industry.[7] William Chandless had been apprenticed to a needle maker for seven years, at the age of fourteen, in 1822.[8] He first registered a mark in 1832, then another in 1841.[9] He had also been in New York working as a silversmith in the years 1835–1839.[10],[11] The 1841 England Census records his children born during those years, from Foreign Parts.[12] William returned to London by 1840, the assay date on my spoon, but the family left again for New York in 1844 to settle there permanently.[13] New silver suppliers were opening up in North America and perhaps this helped prompt his relocation.[14]
The British industrial revolution that had begun in the previous century had driven people to towns to work in factories. Faster, mechanised production produced cheaper goods, making them available to a growing, wealthy middle-class keen to show off their success and status.[15],[16] Innovations, in the developing silverplating industry in Birmingham, were utilised by sterling silver artisans too, keeping their products competitive,[17],[18]
By 1840 William Chandless would have dispensed with the first step of flattening out raw silver, by buying already rolled sheets of sterling silver alloy.[19] Blanks of silver, the approximate size of each object were then cut, and rolled further to achieve the thickness and perfect balance illustrated in my spoon.[20] The blank was then heated to allow for greater pliability forcing the silver into a decorative template on a patterned die. This was aided by the weight of a drop hammer onto the die, before final trimming, buffing and finishing of the piece.[21]
In 1840 the tablespoon, as it was known, was still a part of a table setting. Gradually it was only used as a soup spoon and by the end of the nineteenth century had been replaced by dessert and smaller soup spoons. From that time, it has been used as a serving or mixing spoon, exactly as I have chosen to use it.[22] My spoon was probably part of a large table setting for eight or twelve people. It may have been sold in an elaborate table case with a hinged top and drawers or it may have been sold as a canteen with a simple draw or hinged top.[23] If engraving was required by the buyer, it was sometimes carried out within the maker’s workshop but more likely sent to a specialised hand engraver.[24]
Figure 2. Photograph of engraved letter ‘C’ on William Chandless tablespoon 1840, object held by M Ritchie, Colac, Victoria.
My only forebears with a surname beginning with ‘C’, at that time, were the Clarke family from Upton-on-Severn in Worcestershire. George was a wealthy wine merchant and his sister Anne Clarke had married another successful local wine merchant, Benjamin Goolden Kent. All were likely buyers of these status symbol objects. [25] This alignment of families was strengthened further when George’s son and Anne’s daughter married in Melbourne in 1856.[26] A century later they became my great-great-grandparents.
Perhaps a canteen of silver flatware was Henry’s gift to his new bride, but as it was not a new setting, it was more likely family property, gifted by his parents, to the new couple. Possibly as the Clarke family name broadened out in Australia, the engraved ‘C’ was no longer representative of the family surname or perhaps the set was broken up between children.
This spoon had begun as a mined raw material that was subsequently processed by a major supplier probably in South America.[27] Traded into the British Empire it was processed with an alloy into ready-made sheets of sterling silver, then crafted by William Chandless, a silversmith in 1840’s London, with his own unfolding international history. The spoon’s subsequent journey to Australia and its story within my family, remain conjecture for now. What I do appreciate and value, 180 years later, is the craftsmanship and new technologies that went into creating such a beautiful and useful object.
Figure 3. Photograph of William Chandless tablespoon 1840 buffed and ready for Christmas 2020’, object held by M Ritchie, Colac, Victoria.
Bibliography
Currier, Ernest M.,1867-1936: Buhler, Mrs Kathryn C, Marks of Early American Silversmiths 1815-1841, Portland, ME: The South-Anthoensen press, London, https://archive.org/details/marksofearlyamer/.
‘Cutlery, Volume 1’, http://www.madehow.com/Volume-1/Cutlery.html, accessed 19th Nov 2020.
‘Economic and Social History: Industry and Trade,1500-1880’, https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/warks/vol7/pp81-139#h3-0022, accessed 17 Nov 2020.
Encyclopaedia Brittanica, ‘Patio processing’, https://www.britannica.com/technology/patio-process, accessed 17 Nov 2020.
Engraved letter ‘C’ on William Chandless tablespoon 1840, photograph, object held by Meryl Ritchie, Colac, Victoria.
‘Flatware Engraving’, https://www.acsilver.co.uk/acsnews/2017/05/03/flatware-engraving/, accessed 16 Nov 2020.
London, England, Freedom of the City Admission Papers, 1681-1930, UK Collection, Ancestry.com, accessed 23 Nov 2020.
Hallmarks on William Chandless tablespoon 1840, photograph, object held by Meryl Ritchie, Colac, Victoria.
Howard, Montague, Old English Silver, Its Makers, and its Marks, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York: BT Batsford, London, 1903, https://archive.org/stream/oldlondonsilver.
Makers’ Marks on British and Irish Silver’, https://www.silvermakersmarks.co.uk/index.htm, accessed 15 Nov 2020.
Marriage Certificate of Henry James Clarke and Mary Eliza Kent, image held by the author.
Mayfair Gallery, ‘History of Silver and Antique Silverware’, https://www.mayfairgallery.com/blog/history-antique-silver-silverware accessed 21 Nov 2020
Metropolitan Museum of Art, ‘British Silver: The Wealth of a Nation’, https://www.metmuseum.org/press/exhibitions/2012/british-silver, accessed 24 Nov 202
National Gallery Victoria ‘Hester Bateman: An Eighteenth-century Entrepreneur’,
https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/essay/hester-bateman-an-eighteenth-century-entrepreneur/, accessed 21 Nov 2020
Passenger and Immigration Lists, 1820-1850, William Chandless, 5 Aug 1844, USA Collection, ancestry.com, accessed 20 Nov 2020.
‘Silver, Volume 3’, http://www.madehow.com/Volume-3/Silver.html, accessed 19 Nov 2020.
‘Sterling Silver Flatware, Cutlery, Settings in canteens’, https://www.carters.com.au/index.cfm/index/1983-flatware-cutlery-settings-in-canteens-boxes-silver/?similar=1385152, accessed 14 Nov 2020.
‘‘Tablespoon’, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tablespoon, accessed 15 Nov 2020.
William Chandless tablespoon 1840, buffed and ready for Christmas 2020, photograph, object held by M Ritchie, Colac, Victoria.
NOTES:
[1] ‘Silver Flatware Patterns – Handles’, https://www.acsilver.co.uk/acsnews/2014/08/28/silver-flatware-patterns-handles/, accessed 15 Nov 2020.
[2] Howard, Montague, Old English Silver, Its Makers, and its Marks, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York: BT Batsford, London, 1903, http://archive.org/stream/oldlondonsilver.
[3] State Library of Victoria, Hallmarking, https://guides.slv.vic.gov.au/hallmarking ,accessed 15 Nov 2020
[4] State Library of Victoria, “Hallmarking’.
[5] Howard, Old English Silver, p 38.
[6]Phil Obourn to Meryl Ritchie, ‘Silver Collector Forums: The Basics’, email 17 Nov 2020, original held by author.
[7] National Gallery Victoria ‘Hester Bateman: An Eighteenth-century Entrepreneur’,
https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/essay/hester-bateman-an-eighteenth-century-entrepreneur/, accessed 21 Nov 2020.
[8] London, England, Freedom of the City Admission Paper, 1681-1930 for William Chandless, 13 White Hart Row, Kennington, Middlesex, London Metropolitan Archive,
COL/CHD/FR/02/1606-1609, UK Collection, Ancestry,com, accessed 23 Nov 2020.
[9] Makers’ Marks on British and Irish Silver’, https://www.silvermakersmarks.co.uk/index.htm, accessed 15 Nov 2020.
[10] ‘US Craftsperson Files,1600-1995’, for William Chandless, New York, USA Collection, Ancestry.com, accessed 19 Nov 2020.
[11]Currier, Ernest M. & Buhler, Mrs Kathryn C, Marks of Early American Silversmiths 1815-1841, Portland, ME: The South-Anthoensen press; London, https://archive.org/details/marksofearlyamer/.
[12] Census Record for Eliza, George & Sarah Chandless, aged,6, 4 & 2, The National Archives, HO107/1084/7 UK Census Collection, Ancestry.com, accessed 17 Nov 2020.
[13] New York, US, Arriving Passenger and Immigration Lists, 1820-1850, William Chandless, 5 Aug 1844, USA Collection, Ancestry.com, accessed 20 Nov 2020.
[14] ‘Silver, Volume 3’, http://www.madehow.com/Volume-3/Silver.html, accessed 19 Nov 2020.
[15] Mayfair Gallery, ‘History of Silver and Antique Silverware’, https://www.mayfairgallery.com/blog/history-antique-silver-silverware, accessed 18 Nov 2020.
[16] Metropolitan Museum of Art, ‘British Silver: The Wealth of a Nation’, https://www.metmuseum.org/press/exhibitions/2012/british-silver, accessed 24 Nov 2020.
[17] ‘Economic and Social History: Industry and Trade,1500-1880’, https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/warks/vol7/pp81-139#h3-0022, accessed 17 Nov 2020.
[18] National Gallery Victoria ‘Hester Bateman: An Eighteenth-century Entrepreneur
[19] National Gallery Victoria ‘Hester Bateman: An Eighteenth-century Entrepreneur’.
[20] ‘How Cutlery is Made’, Cutlery, Volume 1’, http://www.madehow.com/Volume-1/Cutlery.html, accessed 19th Nov 2020.
[21] How Cutlery is Made, ‘Cutlery, Volume 1.
[22] ‘Tablespoon’, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tablespoon ,accessed 15 Nov 2020.
[23] ‘Sterling Silver Flatware, Cutlery, Settings in canteens’, https://www.carters.com.au/index.cfm/index/1983-flatware-cutlery-settings-in-canteens-boxes-silver/?similar=1385152, accessed 14 Nov 2020.
[24] ‘Flatware Engraving’, https://www.acsilver.co.uk/acsnews/2017/05/03/flatware-engraving/, accessed 16 Nov 2020.
[25] Ancestry.com, ‘Williams-Fethers Family Tree’ compiled and held by the author.
[26] Marriage Certificate of Henry James Clarke and Mary Eliza Kent, 8 Oct 1856, Hawthorn, Victoria, image held by the author.
[27] Encyclopaedia Brittanica, ‘Patio processing’, https://www.britannica.com/technology/patio-process, accessed 17 Nov 2020.