A Charles II West Country silver 'Puritan Transitional' spoon. Maker's mark WB...

A Charles II West Country silver 'Puritan Transitional' spoon.

Maker's mark WB,

Exeter, c.1670.

The transitional trefid spoon decorated with inverted heart and scroll engraving to terminal, the reverse of the stem with incuse WB mark, possibly for William Bayly (free 1666, d.1697), and a further mark, the reverse of the bowl prick dot engraved with initials and the date 1671, 19.9cm long, approx. weight 1.1ozt (34.4g)

Provenance: A Private Collection of Silver Spoons (Part 2)

Footnote:

Please see West Country Silver Spoons and their Makers 1550-1750 by Timothy Kent, pg. 70 and pg. 169 (image A.16) for reference to a similar Exeter mark on a 1675 apostle spoon associated with William Bayly. William Bayly was apprenticed to the well-known spoonmaker Thomas Wood (Exeter), who is known to have made spoons with engraved decoration eg. a prick dot engraved puritan spoon which sold at Christie's in 2014: https://www.christies.com.cn/en/lot/lot-5847283

A similar 'puritan transitional' spoon is illustrated in Silver Spoons of Britain 1200-1710 by David J. E. Constable (Vol. 2), pp. 546-549. Constable describes it as: 'an interesting link type'.