A James I silver-gilt Aphrodite spoon, John Quick, Barnstable, circa 1630

Thomas Alder Thorp (1865-1945), of Bondgate Hall, Alnwick, Northumberland,

T.A. Thorp, Bondgate Hall, Alnwick, Northumberland,

Christie's, London, 16 May 1940, lot 66 (£22 to Spink),

The Cookson Collection,

with How of Edinburgh by 1963,

Gerald S. Sanders, Esq., 76 Eaton Place, London, SW1,

acquired from the above 24 July 1963,

with J.H. Bourdon-Smith,

Christie's, London, 25-26 November 2014, lot 454

Commander G.E.P. How and J.P. How; English and Scottish Silver Spoons, Medieval to Late Stuart and Pre-Elizabethan Hallmarks on English Plate; London; 1952; vol. II, pp.202-203, pl. 1

Grosvenor House Art and Antiques Fair Handbook; 2003; p.245

T. Kent; West Country Silver Spoons and their Makers 1550-1750; London; 1992; p.18

Spoons with so-called 'Aphrodite' finials of semi-naked female figures were a specialty of Barnstaple and later Plymouth ranging from around 1590-1640. There is no definitive explanation for the design, but a number of theories have been put forward including that it represents the Virgin Mary (perhaps unlikely given the town's puritanical leanings) or the figureheads on ships which would have been a common sight in Barnstaple's harbour where John Quick's shop was situated.

Little is known of John Quick besides that he was almost certainly the son of the goldsmith Peter Quick and was baptised in 1573. His maker's marks are 'IQ' with pellets below or the berry mark seen in the bowl on the present spoon. Many of his spoons also have a mark stamped three times on the back of the stem which has often been misattributed to the Barnstaple silversmith Robert Mathew; How (op. cit.) identified this mark as the monogram BARUM, a contraction of the Latin name for Barnstaple.

On account of the quality of his work and the vitality of his designs and decoration How accorded Quick the honour of being '...the greatest English spoon-maker of all time'., and Timothy Kent (op. cit.) in further tribute used three of Quick's spoons as the front cover illustration of his definitive work.