SPOON

Silver gilt spoon fragment. Two piece terminal from a spoon. The stem is of silver, of hexagonal section, and is broken towards its bowl end leaving a visible length of 23mm. Its union with a figurative terminal union is slightly angled, possibly from an attempt to remove the figure or other adventitious damage. The end is inserted into a column base supporting a naturalistically modelled Virgin and Child, of height c.20mm. The Virgin is robed and wimpled, with a prominent fold of the robe passing diagonally across the front of her body. She cradles Jesus in the crook of her left arm. Her right hand is damaged. She stands on a stepped seven sided column base which is undercut and supported by a hexagonal socket receiving the stem. The figurine was gilded; in so far as may be judged given the finder's predilection for robust cleaning, the stem was not.

The face of the Virgin is lean and her body thickset, while the Child is chubby though modelled to scale. The eyes of both Virgin and Child are enlarged, and in the Virgin's case the mouth is open with both upper and lower teeth modelled. Her expression is more pained than serene; whether this was intended at this scale is open to question, though the role of Mary as Mother of Sorrows anticipating the fate of Her Son is implied by many late medieval artworks. A cowled costume was also a badge of mourning, as, for example, worn by a wooden statuette representing Warwick the Kingmaker (obit 1471). Neither figure is haloed.

The naturalistic treatment shows the influence of the Renaissance as transmitted to northern Europe, and the figure, drapery and exaggerated facial expression find parallels in the printed works of Durer (1471-1528). There may be further symbolic details to be considered; for example the seven-sided base upon which the Virgin stands, above a stem and socket which are hexagonal. The Marian emphasis of this piece would seem apt to the latest part of the Middle Ages, and improbable from a Reformation context.

The spoon knop dates from the fifteenth century.

Length (overall): 46.09mm, Diameter (stem): 3.4mm, Width (figure): 9.0mm, Thickness: 5.3mm, Weight: 7.00gms.