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Tablespoon

Tablespoon
Maker:  Thompson Davis
Silver
1762-1763
Tablespoon
Tablespoon
Maker:  Thompson Davis
Silver
1762-1763
Tablespoon Maker: Thompson Davis Silver 1762-1763
Status
Not on view
Label Text

In 1762, George Washington ordered from London a complete set of new china and flatware, including fourteen silver table spoons to compliment the ten he already owned. His purchase reflected not only his own passion for orderly appearances, but his desire to adopt the genteel dining practices of the English and colonial elite. Coordinated table settings supported the elaborate presentation of dinner and dessert courses that served to delight and impress guests. Each spoon was set on the table with its bowl downward in order to display Washington's engraved crest.

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Date1762-1763
Maker (English, 1757 - 1764)
Retailer (English, 1751 - 1799)
Geography Made - England
Medium/TechniqueSilver
DimensionsOverall: 1 5/8 in. x 8 1/16 in. (4.13 cm x 20.47 cm)
Credit LineGift of Mary Lee Bowman and Robert E. Lee IV, 1981 Conservation courtesy of Virginia C. Mars
Object numberW-2536
DescriptionSilver tablespoon with elongated, oval bowl, rounded, upturned handle with midrib; rounded drop on the reverse of the handle where it joins the bowl; reverse of the handle engraved with the Washington crest, a griffin seated on a coronet.
Published ReferencesCarol Borchert Cadou, The George Washington Collection: Fine and Decorative Arts at Mount Vernon (New York: Hudson Hills Press, 2006), 58.

Martha Gandy Fales, "The Silver," Magazine Antiques 135/2 (February 1989): 517, 519.

Kathryn Buhler, Mount Vernon Silver (Mount Vernon, VA: Mount Vernon Ladies Association, 1957), 35-36.

MarkingsMarked on the reverse of the handle: Maker's mark, "TD"; London city mark, Leopard's head crowned; Sterling standard mark, Lion passant; date letter "G".
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