AN AMERICAN SILVER SPOON TRAY, PHILIP SYNG, JR., PHILADELPHIA, CIRCA 1740

with cut corners and flared borders, engraved with mirror cypher JBA.

Probably John and Ann Bartram
Sarah Isabella Shaw (1828-1903) of Philadelphia, m. about 1855 Richard Wood of Bermuda.  Changing their name to Shaw-Wood, the couple moved to Oakville, Ontario, Canada in 1861.
Christie's New York, January 27, 1996, lot 132

Worldly Goods 1999, no. 223.
SAM American Sampler, 2002-2005

good , great piece
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The initials are probably those of John and Ann Bartram, who were married in 1729.  An unmarked salver with a very similar mirror cypher JAB, known to have belonged to the couple, is in the collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art (see Lindsey, no. 236, p. 192).

John Bartram (1699-1777), although self-educated, became perhaps America's greatest "natural" botanist.  At his 102-acre farm at Kingsessing on the western bank of the Schuykill, he had a botanical garden where he grew rare plants, experimented with hybrids, and sent seeds to collectors in America and abroad.  He was responsible for almost one quarter of the "new" plants sent to Europe from Colonial North America.  His interests also included geography, geology, homeopathy, and general scientific inquiry.

Almost no spoon trays are known to have survived from Colonial America, though Joseph Richardson's account books show that he made three between 1737 and 1738, one described as "a tea Spoon boat."  The finely engraved mirror cypher on this piece may be by Laurence Herbert; a 1748 notice in the Pennsylvania Gazette advertises "Engraving done on Gold, Silver, Copper or Pewter done by Laurence Herbert from London at Philip Syng's, Goldsmith, in Front Street" (cited Ian Quimby, American Silver at Winterthur, p. 450).