Stanyforth Edwin Wilfrid (1 results)

Condition: Very good. First Edition. First (and only) edition of this remarkable and entirely photographic catalogue of a single collection. Featuring more than 200 spoons, with the earliest in the collection dating from 1488, EARLY ENGLISH SPOONS documents the famed Staniford English spoon collection. An unintentional artist's book or photobook, this elaborate album was produced in a "very small edition" (Report for the Year 1909-1917 on the Victoria and Albert Museum) and is now quite scarce. It is noteworthy not only for its breadth (including numerous apostle spoons), but for the inclusion of an extremely rare "death's head" spoon (1661). This specific spoon was profiled in Sam O'Brien's 2021 ATLAS OBSCURA article "The Macabre Mystery of a British Family's Skull-Topped Spoons." As he (and scholar David Constable in his book SILVER SPOONS OF BRITAIN: 1200-1710) note, these macabre spoons - though often thought of as memorial or funeral spoons - were in fact "likely a gift for a baby" to mark their birth, an unusual memento mori. OCLC locates just three holdings (V&A, Museum of Fine Art Boston, Philadelphia Museum of Art). An important reference and an evocative work, one that in its mundanity and matter-of-fact-ness calls to mind the iconic BOOK OF BREAD. 11.5'' x 10''. Original contemporary green gilt morocco. All edges gilt; gilt floral-patterned dentelles. Marbled endpapers. Printed colophon, photographic title page, plus 81 photographic plates (with descriptive text) mounted on card and bound onto linen guards. Three-page partial typed list of contents loosely laid in. Leather rubbed, especially at extremities. Some scuffing. Bumping to corners. Top board starting, tender. Prelims a bit shaken. Overall, clean and sound.