An extremely rare set of William and Mary silver gilt sweetmeat eaters, London circa 1690

Trefid pattern, comprising six forks, six spoons and six knives. The forks and spoons with engraved decoration of dense foliate scrolls, a mask to the back and a vacant oval cartouche to the front. The cannon handle knife hafts with engraved chevrons, terminating in a rosette. The knifes with original steel blades. The forks with maker’s mark IH crowned, probably for Jean Harrache, four spoons marked the same, two with maker’s mark TT crowned for Thomas Tysoe, the knife blades with the cutler’s mark of a Y below a Roman dagger for Joseph Surtut (or Surbut) (reg. 11 Oct 1631), the hafts unmarked. (18)

Spoon length – 10.5 cm / 4.1 inches

Fork length – 9.9 cm / 3.9 inches

Knife length – 12.5 cm / 4.85 inches

Silver weight – 78 grams / 2.51 ozt

Provenance and Illustrated:

Butler, R., (1999), The Albert Collection: Five Hundred Years of British and European Silver, Lancashire: Broadway Publishing. P. 356-57.

For the mark of the Joseph Surtut see, Hindle, K. Herbert, J., (2005), The Collections of the Worshipful Company of Cutlers of London – part one London-made knives and their marks, Befordhshire: New Generation Publishing. P. 162.

A similar set by Tysoe is in the Philadelphia Museum of Art (various 1944-62-13q)

Another set by Tysoe, deficient of two teaspoons and with some replaced blades is in a private collection.

A teaspoon bearing Tysoe’s maker’s mark and marked for London 1692 was sold Christie’s South Kensington, 3 June 2008, lot 358 (part-lot)

A set of six sweetmeat forks by Jean Harrache sold Christie’s South Kensington, 3 Nov 2011, lot 45 (£2500 incl. prem)