The Romsey/Ashburnham Gold Spoon, Robert King, London, 1681

Colonel John Romsey (d.1689) and his wife Elizabeth (1641-1697), widow of Sir Hugh Smith, 1st Bt. (1632- 1680) and thence by descent to her son by her first marriage,

Sir John Smith, 2nd Bt. (1659-1726) and thence by descent to his son,

Sir John Smith, 3rd and last Bt. (1699-1741) and thence by descent to his sister and co-heir,

Florence (1701-1767) and her 2nd husband Jarrit Smith (d.1783), later 1st Bt. of Long Ashton of the 2nd creation, and thence by descent,

Sotheby's, London, 25 July 1935, lot 38,

Sir Andrew Noble, Bt., K.C.M.G., John Noble Esq. and Michael Noble, their sale, Christie's, London, 28 March 1962, lot 71 (£1,450 to Lumley),

Nathaniel Mayer Victor, 3rd Baron Rothschild (1910- 1990),

Christie's, London, A Gentleman, 20 November 2001, lot 17,

with J.H. Bourdon-Smith, December 2001; Christie's, London, 25-26 November 2014, lot 467,

On loan with The Victoria and Albert Museum, 1997- 2000

A. Grimwade; 'A New List of Old English Gold Plate'; The Connoisseur, 1951, part I, p.81, p.79

Christie's Review of the Season; London; 1961-62; p.32;

T. Schroder; 'English Gold'; in The Handbook of the Grosvenor House Antiques Fair; 1985; p.9, fig. 1;

M. Clayton; The Collector's Dictionary of the Silver and Gold of Great Britain and North America; Woodbridge; 1985; p.382; fig. 558a;

T. Kent; 'Gold'; in The Finial, June/July 2002; p.198.

The arms are those of Romsey impaling Ashburnham for Colonel John Romsey (d.1689) and his wife Elizabeth (1641-1697), daughter of John Ashburnham (1656-1710), Groom of the Bedchamber of King Charles I. Elizabeth was the widow of Sir Hugh Smith, 1st Bt. (1632-1680), of Long Ashton, co. Somerset. She was married to Colonel

Romsey on 3rd August 1681.

Colonel John Romsey (d.1689) had been a colonel in Cromwell's army but is chiefly remembered for being one of the Rye House Plot conspirators. In the Spring of 1683 it was alleged that William, Baron Howard, Arthur, Earl of Essex, Algernon Sidney, Lord William Russell, Sir Thomas Armstrong, Robert Ferguson and others planned to murder King Charles II and the Duke of York, later King James II, on their way back to London from Newmarket. Another of the group, Richard Rumbold (d.1685), who had also fought with Cromwell, had married the widow of a maltster, and it was at their place of business, The Rye House, near Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire that they planned

to attack the Royal party with forty men. It was through Rumbold that Romsey became involved with the group.

The conspirators were betrayed by Howard. Russell, Sidney and Armstrong were each tried, convicted and beheaded. Essex is thought to have committed suicide while imprisoned in the Tower. Romsey together with Howard gave evidence against their fellow plotters and escaped prosecution. He later gave evidence against the London Alderman, Henry Cornish (d.1685), and it was his testimony, together with that of Richard Goodenough, that led to Cornish's trial and subsequent execution in 1685.

The silver scholar Timothy Kent discussed the present spoon (op. cit.) calling it: '...a great rarity, and of course has impeccable provenance...Any gold spoon would have been an expensive special commission, the silver price being about 5/- an ounce and gold £5 an ounce. I know of no other [British] pre-1700 gold spoon...".