Dessert spoon

Status

Not on view

Label Text

Martha Washington's son, John "Jacky" Parke Custis, and his new wife, Eleanor Calvert, assembled an impressive array of imported English silver soon after they married in 1774. It included twenty-four dessert spoons featuring the Custis crest. This is one of sixteen French spoons made at a later date which descended in the family of Jacky's daughter, Eliza Parke Custis Law. She likely ordered them to supplement her inherited portion of her parents' eighteenth-century wedding silver.

See also dessert spoons, H-4802-H-4807, H-4809, H-4810, W-445/A-F, and W-1468.

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Datec. 1809-1819

Maker TJ (French)

Geography Made - France

Medium/TechniqueSilver

DimensionsOverall: 5 5/8 in. x 1 1/8 in. (14.29 cm x 2.86 cm)

Credit LineAcquired through the generosity of Thomas V. H. Vail and Iris J. Vail, 2008

Object numberH-4808

DescriptionDessert spoon with pointed oval bowl and rounded, downturned handle with faint midrib and plain edges; engraved on obverse of handle with the Custis family crest, the head of an eagle issuing from a wreath.

MarkingsThree hallmarks or stamps on reverse of handle: Parisian medium excise mark featuring the profile of a helmeted Greek soldier, facing right, in a circle; official Parisian assay mark for standard silver, 950/1000, featuring the profile of a cock, running right, with the number "1" at lower right, all in a bordered, canted-corner rectangle; unidentified maker's mark features a Caduceus flanked by the letters "T" and "J", all in a diamond.

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