English: A Post Medieval lead alloy 'maidenhead' spoon dating to the 16th century. The spoon has a fig shaped bowl and a stem with hexagonal cross-section. The spoon knop has a female head and shoulders emerging from a calyx of four leaves or petals possible a lily. The female figure has a distinctive hairstyle with the hair pulled back from the forehead, with centre parting, the hair then is gathered at the knap of the neck and then cascades down her back. The type may have originated as a representation of the Virgin, but the term 'maidenhead' was commonly used for such spoons in the 16th and 17th century. The spoon has a maker's mark in the bowl of an 'IG' within a beaded circle. Possible associated with the Mercers Company who used the 'maidenhead' as its emblem, she first appears on a seal in 1425. Her precise origins are unknown, and there is no written evidence as to why she was chosen as the Company's emblem.

Dimensions: length: 160.1mm; width:45.88 mm; weight: 28.04g

Similar spoons on the database are PAS-98F108, WMID-9766D3, SOM-1C0A84 and SOM-7C42D7

Hilton Price (1908:26) writes "These spoons were made of pewter and probably as early as the XVth century; they were certainly in use during the XVIth century. Mr. Jackson states that the earliest published reference to silver "maidenhead spoons" occours in an inventory of Durham Priory of the year 1446."

Reference: Hornsby, P., Weinstein, R. and Homer, R. 1989. Pewter. A Celebration of the Craft 1200 - 1700. Museum of London, London.

Egan, G. 2005. Material Culture in London in an Age of Transition. MoLAS Monograph 19. English Heritage: London.

Hilton Price F.G., 1908. Old Base Metal Spoons with Illustrations and Marks. Batsford High Holborn, London.