An extremely rare Charles I provincial silver seal top spoon, Norwich 1640 by Arthur Haselwood I (1593-1671, free. 1625)

Fig shaped bowl, tapering stem with a seal top of inverted baluster form below a double knopped section, the disc end prick dot engraved to the top with contemporaneous initials TB over WB with the date 1639 in-between, heightened with scrolls. Traces of gilding to the finial. Fully marked with standard mark to bowl and to reverse of seal top section, date letter R.

Length – 17.2 cm / 6.75 inches

Weight – 47 grams / 1.51 ozt

Three times the assay office of Norwich ran a date letter system, first between 1565-70/1, and then again 1624-42/43, and finally between 1688-1697/1702.

The Haselwood family was the most well-known of the Norwich silversmiths, the workshop ran by three generations from circa 1625-1740 in some capacity. Arthur Haselwood I was apprenticed to Daniel Eynsworth, admitted free 30^th May 1625, served as warden of the guild in 1628,29 and 40. Christopher Hartop notes “[n]o more than a dozen pieces, including four items of church plate, survive from the elder Haselwoods' workshop”. A seal top spoon of 1638 by Arthur Haselwood I is illustrated Hartrop, C., (2004), East Anglian Silver 1550-1750, Cambridge: John Adamson, p. 50, fig. 15.

His son Arthur Haselwood II was apprenticed to his father and free 26^th March 1661, Hartop notes here that the mark of Arthur Haselwood II is found on approximately 75 objects, of which 46 are ecclesiastical items, leaving only 30 or so for domestic pieces, a trefid spoon by Arthur Haselwood II was sold these rooms 19 Oct 2022, lot 718 (£4750 incl. prem). His widow Elizabeth took over the workshop upon his death on November 14^th 1684, it is clear than under her that the Haselwood workshop continued to prosper tenure until her death on January 22^nd 1715. She and her husband are buried in the same tomb in St Andrew’s Church, Norwich.

The assay office of Norwich, along with Bristol, represents the rarest official assay offices in English silver, although granted assay in 1423, it was not until 1565 that assay marks became formally employed in the city. While Norwich (but also Bristol) was included in the 1701 bill to grant assay offices to several towns outside of London, only a slim handful of pieces are known from either town at this time. It is surmised that in Norwich production of silver slowed down considerably and was sent for marking elsewhere in the 18^th century.

For an example of a Norwich seal top, Norwich 1631 by Timothy Skottowe, that also has the rose crowned (standard mark) struck on the reverse of the finial section, as well as customarily in the front of the bowl, see Hartrop, C., (2004), East Anglian Silver 1550-1750, Cambridge: John Adamson, p. 87. Commander How notes on this that “(…) proving conclusively that the finial is original. This valuable practice of striking a mark at the junction of the finial and stem would appear to have been customary Norwich at this period, but I have not noted it on English spoons made elsewhere” (How, Spoons, vol. 2 p. 168)

A Norwich seal top spoon 1641 by Arthur Haselwood was sold Sworder 13 June 2023, lot 99 (£7500 hammer)

A Norwich seal top spoon 1637 by a pelican in her piety was sold Woolley and Wallis, 21 Jul 2010, lot 307 (£9000 hammer)

A Norwich seal top of circa 1590 by Christopher Tannor was sold Christie’s, South Kensington 25 Feb 2014, lot 84 (£10,000 incl. prem)