James I Sterling Silver Apostle Spoon

hallmarked London, 1616-1617, attributed to William Lovejoy (fl. 1615-1638/39), depicting St. Matthew.
l. 7-3/8", w. 2"; 1.97 t. oz.

Literature: Piers Percival, "Elizabethan London Specialist Spoonmakers", in The Finial: Journal of the Silver Society of Great Britain, v. 14/06, Jul/Aug 2004, pp. 14-21; also "Woolsack Postscript", in The Finial: Journal of the Silver Society of Great Britain, v. 15/01, Sep/Oct 2004, pp. 4-5; and "John Round - Third Apprentice of Patrick Brue", in in The Finial: Journal of the Silver Society of Great Britain, v. 15/06, Jul/Aug 2005, pp. 8-10
Timothy Arthur Kent, London Silver Spoonmakers, 1500-1697 (London: Silver Society, 1981), pp. 4,7,8,12

Notes: The identity of the maker who used the mullet (an heraldic star) enclosed by a crescent has been a subject of speculation for nearly a century. That it appeared in several different designs over 80 years, from the mid-16th century to the 1630s, and almost exclusively on a great number of spoons, makes it certain that it was not used by one maker, but rather by a succession of specialist spoonmakers. Most scholars agree the likeliest candidate is the Woolsack, Cheapside shop founded by Nicholas Bartholomew around 1545, and that Bartholomew himself might have used the mark (though another mark - NB conjoined - is attributed to him). It was likely next the mark of his apprentice Patrick Brue, who himself had six apprentices between 1575 and 1605, among them William Cawdell who assumed the Woolsack premises, using a similar mark with a crescent enclosing a "W". Another Brue apprentice, John Lovejoy, was probably the next user of the crescent and mullet mark while working for Cawdell. Lovejoy died in August 1612, and by 1625 his son William Lovejoy was leasing the Woolsack from Cawdell, having received freedom by patrimony in 1621. It is likely, then, that the mark in the form as used on the spoon in the present lot - the crescent and mullet within a scalloped shield - was that used by William Lovejoy after the death of his father; he would have been permitted, as noted by Piers Percival, to have used a mark before his freedom as long as he traded through the offices of a goldsmith who enjoyed the freedom of the city, i.e. Cawdell. The attribution to William Lovejoy is bolstered by the strange absence of the mark on spoons from 1627 onwards, and reappearing around 1638. It is now known that Lovejoy was in prison during some of this time, having appealed for financial relief in 1629 during his incarceration "in the compter in Wood Street". He may or may not be the William Lovejoy buried on August 23, 1643, in St. Martin-in-the-Fields, Westminster.

In quite good condition with no issues noted beyond the expected patina and scattered tiny nicks commensurate with age. Marked in the bowl with the London crowned leopard's head and on the reverse of the handle with the sterling lion passant, the date letter "T" for 1616/17, and the mullet and crescent maker's mark attributed to William Lovejoy. All marks very clean and legible; the lion passant slightly off-struck (see online illustration).