A rare and wonderful George I Hanoverian pattern West Country silver basting spoon with a rat tail. The spoon is struck with the maker’s mark only, the Britannia Standard* silver mark for Zacariah Williams of Plymouth, which he entered in 1717. Contemporary block initials ‘D over H.S’ to the reverse of the terminal. A heavy, tactile and pleasing spoon and a very rare collector’s piece.* Britannia silver is an alloy of silver containing 11 ounces and 10 pennyweight silver in the pound troy, equivalent to 95.83% by weight silver, the balance being usually copper.This higher standard of silver content of 958 parts per thousand was introduced in England by Act of Parliament in 1697 to replace sterling silver (92.5% silver) as the obligatory standard for items of ''wrought plate''. The lion passant gardant hallmark denoting sterling was replaced with ''the figure of a woman commonly called Britannia'', and the leopard''s head mark of the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths replaced with a ''lion''s head erased''.Britannia standard silver was introduced as part of the great recoinage scheme of William III from 1696, when attempts were made to limit the clipping and melting of sterling silver coinage. A higher standard for wrought plate meant that sterling silver coins could not easily be used as a source of raw material because additional fine silver, which was in short supply at the time, would have to be added to bring the purity of the alloy up to the higher standard.Britannia silver is considerably softer than sterling, and after complaints from the trade sterling silver was authorised again for use by silversmiths from 1 June 1720, and thereafter Britannia silver has remained an optional standard for hallmarking in the United Kingdom and Ireland.Condition: The spoon is in super collector’s condition with really good definition to the maker’s mark, the inscribed initials, the rat tail and the terminal. Some wear from use to the leading edge of the bowl.Maker: Zacariah Williams Plymouth c 1718 Miles Harrison p294Dimensions: 35.5cm. 204gI prefer to receive payment by direct bank transfer where possible, please contact me.FREE WORLD WIDE POSTAGE. Postage within the UK by Royal Mail Special Delivery next day tracked and signed for service, postage overseas by Royal Mail Special Delivery 3 to 5 day tracked and signed for service. Upgrade to DHL FEDEX or similar at cost, please contact me to arrange.Height is 35.5cm (14.0inches)
Width is 6.5cm (2.6inches)
Depth is 0.5cm (0.2inches)