Incense boat and spoon 1708 - 1709

This incense boat and spoon were made by Benjamin Pyne, a London silversmith active in the early 18th century. The set is fashioned from silver, a material prized for its malleability and luster. Pyne would have started with ingots of silver, heating and hammering them into thin sheets. These would then be shaped, likely using a combination of raising, where the metal is hammered from the inside to create a hollow form, and chasing, where details are worked on the surface. The spoon would have been cast, then carefully finished with files and polishing tools. The surface of the silver, now tarnished with age, would originally have gleamed, reflecting light and signaling wealth and status. Silver objects like these were not merely functional; they were potent symbols of social standing, proclaiming the owner’s participation in a culture of conspicuous consumption. This little boat and spoon speak volumes about the material world of the early 1700s, a world in which even the burning of incense could be an opportunity to display refinement.