What is a caddy spoon for?

Lifting dry leaf tea out of a caddy. The bowl is broad and shallow so it takes a good scoop, and the handle is short so the spoon fits inside the caddy with the lid down. They appeared in Britain in the later 18th century, once loose tea began arriving in lidded caddies rather than with a scoop-shell.

Which period turns up most often?

Georgian, by a wide margin. The word appears in 183 titles and 174 listings are filed as Georgian, against 62 Victorian, with George III the largest slice inside that. After the Georgian and Victorian groups there's a solid Edwardian to interwar seam, including 1920s and 1930s pieces and titles naming Art Deco.

How big and heavy are they?

Small. The ones that quote a weight in the title mostly fall between 12 and 32 grams, and the heaviest figure quoted anywhere in the archive is 67 grams. Most are under a few inches long, which is what the caddy demanded.

Are novelty shapes common?

They're a visible minority rather than the norm. Leaf bowls are the biggest decorative family at 34 titles, taking in vine and grape, oak and veined naturalistic forms, and jockey caps account for 14. Beyond those, one-off shapes crop up once and nowhere else: a hand, a cowrie shell, a frying pan, a hoof, a camel, a lizard, a sea serpent, an octagonal bowl and a teapot-handled spoon.

Do non-British caddy spoons appear?

Yes, as a small but wide seam. Dutch, Norwegian, Swedish, Danish, Russian cloisonné, American, Indian, Australian and French pieces all show up among English sterling. Scandinavian silver is the steadiest part of that strand.

Why do so many listings say only 1800s?

Because the dealer date field carries century- and decade-wide labels as well as exact years. Forty-seven listings are given only as "1800s", 30 as "19th Century", 22 as "18th Century" and 20 as "Regency". A spoon filed that way may sit anywhere in that span. Where a title quotes a hallmark year, that's the firmer figure, and 173 listings carry one.

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Antique Silver Caddy Spoons

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A caddy spoon is a short-handled silver scoop with a broad shallow bowl, made to lift dry leaf tea out of a lidded caddy and short enough to sit inside it.