Glascow, 1882. I didn’t think they had refined sugar in 1882. Any other thoughts? Thanks
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William Coghill, 1859…1886, Stormont Street, Glasgow.
William Coghill registered his stamp at Glasgow Assay Office in 1856. Known for his flatware, he had premises on Stormont Street for several years.
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Ah yes, thank you very much. Sugar shovel it seems is the proper term.
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Can’t help feeling the Victorians were running out of things to make of silver. They not only produced these sugar shovels but also came up with jam spoons.
The difference betwee the former, of which you have a fine example, and the jam spoon. is the latter is without sides. I suppose you could call it a jam spade. Sideless jam spoons must have had a lot of pectin in them.
ebay is replete with examples of both and the vendors often mix them up. Here’s a jam spade on offer from down under as a sugar spoon
Then there are spoons with some sort of bowl which are clearly not tea spoons but seem to have no design-dictated purpose.
Again all sorts of good folks on ebay would like to sell you these sometimes in a job lot.
The special purpose spoons which are very collectable as those associated with medical purposes. Spoons for opium, spoons for dealing with ear wax and so on.
Because silver spoons are traceable back to the time of Darius III, the Persian king who lost out to that wretched Macedonian head case; Alexander-the-not-so-great and because books get devoted to them, they are all very collectible.
Victorians, despairing of the industrial age’s nouveau riche being actually born with silver spoons in their mouths, used them as christening presents, often copying so-called coronation. spoons suitable for splashing oil on people unlucky enough to be made monarchs. The lifestyle was fine but the span tended to be limited by war or palace intrigue until recently. Now they all live far too long so we get stuck with an inbred gerontocracy.
“English Silver Spoons” written by Michael Snodin and published by Sterling Press is readily available second hand if you feeling like spooning more.
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