🔎 UNIDENTIFIED Is there a name for how the stem once connected to this spoon bowl?

[invent4hir]

Is there a name (i.e. rat tail) for the pattern inside the yellow box where the stem once connected to this spoon bowl?

 

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[Red-Coat]

I would call it a “drop”, which is the name given to the heel on the underside of (typically Hanoverian pattern) spoon bowls. It’s a follow-on remnant of the earlier rat-tail attachment and can be found in a variety of forms: single, double, extended and strap as well as later forms that are purely decorative such as shells, scrolls and such on spoons cast as a single piece.

 

[invent4hir]

Red-Coat thanks! Since this is follow-on remnant of the earlier rat-tail, do you think it is consistent w/ the other artifacts found on the site dating from the late 1700s to late 1840s?

 

[Red-Coat]

Red-Coat thanks! Since this is follow-on remnant of the earlier rat-tail, do you think it is consistent w/ the other artifacts found on the site dating from the late 1700s to late 1840s?

You're welcome.

Consistent with, yes, but not diagnostically conclusive. True rat tails were generally made between about 1710-1750 and drops followed on from that. In both cases, there was production into the later 19th Century where the outline persisted for aesthetic reasons, but on spoons cast as a single piece. Some really close examination with a loupe might enable you to determine if the spoon was assembled from two pieces or not.