Serving spoon 1711 - 1712

This serving spoon was made by Lewis Mettayer in the late 17th or early 18th century. It’s made of silver, a material that has always signified wealth and status. Look closely, and you can see the marks of the silversmith’s process. The gentle curves of the bowl, the tapering handle – these were all achieved through careful hammering and shaping. Silver is a relatively soft metal, so it can be worked with hand tools, but it still requires considerable skill to coax it into these elegant forms. The spoon isn’t just a functional object, it's an aesthetic one. Consider the social context. Owning a silver spoon like this wasn't just about having something to eat with. It spoke volumes about your place in society, your ability to afford luxury, and the labor required to extract, process, and form the raw material. This spoon is a potent reminder that even the simplest objects carry complex stories of making, ownership, and social meaning.