Caddy Spoons


The short, squat caddy spoon was an indispensable item in any fashionable home of the 18th century. There are many ideas as to why the caddy spoon was fashioned in the shape of a broad, flat shell. One of the more romantic stories is that the shells left behind in the tea chests sent from China were the inspiration for the shell shape. The more logical conclusion is that the short handled caddy spoon was the ideal shape to portion out the precious leaves of tea - caddy spoons date from the mid 18th century when tea was just becoming a popular afternoon drink. The special spoons were designed to be kept locked in wooden caddy boxes with the valuable tea and out of the way of the servants. These 18th century spoons were produced quite cheaply at the time but are now some of the most expensive spoons on the antique market, with many of the rarest kept in museums. But there are some good buys around – silver shell-shaped caddy spoons dated 1790 – 1795 can be bought for around $600.

By the late 19th century, tea was a less expensive commodity and treated with far less reverence. Even so, the caddy spoons had attracted a loyal following and continued to be produced by silversmiths across the country. A silver spoon modeled on the traditional caddy was a popular 19th century gift and would often be engraved to mark a christening or marriage. They were made in hundreds of different designs, often quite witty – some being modeled on upturned hats or outstretched hands. Many of the most ornate caddy spoons were fashioned by Birmingham silversmiths around 1800 and prices for these hover around the $1000 mark. I recently saw an extremely rare George III ‘frying pan’ made by William Pugh, advertised on the internet for $480 and a ‘jockey cap’ by Joseph Taylor for $1050. Other varieties of caddy spoon came into popularity around 1850 - including honey spoons, jam spoons and sugar spoons. These are generally much cheaper at auction and you can generally find some very attractive examples for as little as $50.

Types of Spoons


Up to about 1730 spoons were designed for general use, with relatively large bowls suited to most purposes, but thereafter they tended to become more specialised, with the emergence of distinctive sizes and styles for use with mustard, salt, coffee, tea, sugar, puddings, desserts and so on up the scale to the tablespoon and serving spoons of various sizes. Small silver shovels, with deeper, flattened sides set at right angles to the base of the bowl were intended for handling salt, sugar, flour or other powdered substances.
Medicine spoons are a considerable collectable category in their own right, the examples from the middle of the 19th century onwards often bearing the names of patent medicines or pharmaceutical companies on their stems and handles.
Associated with spoons are various serving and cooking spoons and implements with perforated, pierced or fretted bowls intended as strainers and mote skimmers (for removing the scum on the surface of simmering stews). Fruit spoons were often gilded, either on the bowls alone or on the stems as well, to prevent corrosion from acid in the fruit.
Certain types of spoon, however, stand out from the earlier period and have long attracted the serious attention of collectors. Chief among these are the spoons decorated with tiny figures of Christ and the Twelve Apostles, fashionable in the 15th and 16th centuries as baptismal gifts. This custom was confined mainly to western Europe, especially in England. In most cases the god-parents would give the child a single silver spoon, the stem mounted by the tiny figure of a saint. The wealthier god-parents would give a set of 13 spoons, while those who were not so well-off would give a half-set of six. This charming custom survived the Reformation and only went into decline in the 1660s; examples with late-17th century hallmarks are therefore much sought after.