Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 11.djvu/99

 10 S. XL JAN. 23, 1909.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

79

NOTES ON BOOKS, &o.

Old Base Metal Spoons. By F. G. Hilton Price.

(B. T. Batsford.)

IT is curious that amongst the services or garnishes of pewter plate that have been preserved there are, as far as can be ascertained, no spoons, although these articles have been in common use during the long period in which domestic utensils of base metal have been made. The collections of pewter and latten spoons which are known have all been de- rived from excavations, and it can only therefore be assumed from the absence of specimens in the pewter collections which have been handed down from generation to generation, that spoons of base metal were regarded as of little value by their original owners, to be used by the domestics of the household until worn out, or more probably sold to the pewterers to be melted down.

The present little volume will prove acceptable to connoisseurs and collectors whose hobby inclines them to this particular branch of antiquarian re- search. The author, being Director of the Society of Antiquaries, and a collector of repute, is pecu- liarly fitted to compile such a volume.

The actual history of the spoon was exhaustively dealt with by Mr. C. J. Jackson in a paper read before the Society of Antiquaries and published in ArchcKologia. In this volume Mr. Hilton Price does not pretend to traverse the ground already covered by Mr. Jackson, but confines himself to giving a short description of every known type of spoon, with illustrations, supplemented with lists record- ing the marks or touches upon them down to about the middle of the eighteenth, century. The illustra- tions of these marks will be of inestimable value to the student. They are arranged in chronological order, according to the date and period of the style of the specimen, and at the end of every paragraph upon each type a list is given of all the marks found on them. By these means it will be possible for a collector to fix definitely a date or period for some of the marks.

Although the records of the Pewterers' Company are unfortunately incomplete, they show that from time to time explicit instructions regulating the manufacture of spoons were issued by the Court of the Company, fixing prices and materials and fining delinquents ; as witness the following resolution directed against the manufacture of latten or brass spoons, which it is presumed was encroaching on the trade of the pewter-spoon makers (1567-8) : " It was agreed by the whole Company that there shoulde Be no spones made of Bras or latten or any yelow metall uppon payne that if any person here- after be found that he doth make any suche spones shall f orf ey t and pay for every spone lijs. iiijrf., &c. ; and again we find the following under 1580-7 : " At this Court [14th June] it is determyned that all the makers of lattyn sponnes in London shal be warnec the next Court day that they shalbe bound to make no more sponnes.

That the Court of Pewterers kept a strict eye upon the manufacture of pewter spoons, in order that the quality of the metal issued should be up to the standard required, is shown by the follow ing entry culled from records of the Company "On 20th June, 1667, Robert Wheely was fined

. 5s. for the bad quality of his turning spoons " ;

d with a view to remedy the bad quality of metal ised in making spoons it was decided (19th Decem- >er) " to convert all spoons into lay as they come to any man's hands or custody between 'this and Christmas, and from thence every Shopkeeper or other to deliver unto ye spoon maker plate mettle or as good."

An interesting part of this volume is that relating to the composition of pewter and latten at various periods ; the analysis has been made by Prof. Rowland of the Royal School of Mines, South Kensington, from spoons submitted to him, and the results conclusively fix the component parts of the metals employed in making these spoons. The numerous styles of knop, or termination of the stalk of the spoon, are dealt with and illustrated 1 exhaustively. Occasional excursions are made into- the domain of silver ware, but only for purposes of comparison. The homely pewter or latten spoon- las become the quarry of the collector, if not exactly the desire of the connoisseur, and over a thousand specimens of base metal spoons were examined by the author for the purpose of compiling this work, many of them being illustrated by photo- graphic reproductions. The whole subject has been thoroughly dealt with by one who knows ami appreciates his subject ; and the thanks of all connoisseurs of this form of collecting are due to- him for a lucid and instructive little book, the value of which is enhanced by the modest lines CH* which it is conceived. It is a subject which might easily beget dullness, especially if accompanied by an excessive amount of technicalities.

Mr. Hilton Price has adroitly avoided the pitfall* we have mentioned. The book is interesting in itself by reason of its anecdotal treatment, and the necessarily ample technical details are dealt with in a manner which, while leaving little to> be desired on the score of exactitude, is yet pleasant and profitable reading to all who are devotees of old metal work.

The Nun Ensign. Translated from the Spanish, with an Introduction and Notes, by James Fitz- maurice-Kelly. Also La Monja Alferez : a Play in the Original Spanish. By Juan Perez de Montalban. (Fisher Un win.)

SPAIN has from quite early times been notable for its "mugeres varoniles," and from the fifteenth century onwards we may find not a few instances of a well-born lady donning male attire, buckling a sword round her waist, and sallying forth, not in the temper of Viola and Imogen, who confessed to being no fighters, but with the express object of doing battle if an occasion presented. Moreover, this spirit is not infrequently reflected in the fiction of the times, where the damsel in masquerade plays an important part : Calderon and Cervantes alone will offer a number of examples. Such a capacity for hardy enterprise and action is remarkable enough in ages which generally accepted without thought of protest the theoretical division of the sexes, and Dr. Havelock Ellis has recently, in an interesting and suggestive chapter of his 'Soul of Spain,' laid stress upon it as indicating a national characteristic of the Spanish woman. An excellent illustration of his theory may be found in the so- called ' Nun Ensign,' with whose name and history many English readers have a more or less loose- acquaintance, derived from an essay of De Quincey.