Spoon
This matching fork and spoon are significant not only as rare survivors of Louis XIV’s sumptuary edicts but also as early examples of silver flatware. Although spoons had been used at table since the fifteenth century, forks came into widespread use only in the early part of the seventeenth century, and the concept of a matched fork and spoon, known as a couvert, did not appear until the second half of the century. Knives were included in the couvert toward the end of the 1600s, shortly after this fork and spoon were made. Gilding and engraved scrolling vegetal motifs decorate other surviving couverts of the 1680s.
Artwork Details
- Title: Spoon
- Maker: Louis Nicolle (master 1666, registered new mark 1680, active 1694)
- Date: 1683–84
- Culture: French, Paris
- Medium: Silver gilt
- Dimensions: Length: 7 in. (17.8 cm)
- Classification: Metalwork-Silver
- Credit Line: Bequest of Catherine D. Wentworth, 1948
- Object Number: 48.187.215
- Curatorial Department: European Sculpture and Decorative Arts
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Louis Nicolle
1683–84
Jacques-Nicolas Roettiers
1775–76
François Thomas Germain
1757
Jacques Demé
1690–91
French
ca. 1785
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