Spoon 1718 - 1719

This spoon was made by George Lambe sometime between the late 17th and early 18th century. The material is what we would call 'coin silver' - meaning that it was made by melting down old coins. Lambe would have heated the silver until molten, then poured it into an ingot mould. Next, he would have hammered the metal into a sheet, and then used a series of specialized tools to form the bowl and handle, before polishing the whole thing to a bright gleam. Each of these stages was highly skilled, and would have taken years to master, with London being a center of excellence. The result is a simple, elegant object, but it is important to remember that it only exists due to a whole range of complex economic activities, from mining silver to minting coins. So, the next time you are setting the table, consider the history embedded in these functional yet beautiful forms.