A Study of Historical Spoons

The spoon is one of the oldest types of cutlery, released as a fun sequel to the knife back in Paleolithic times. The word spoon comes from the Anglo-Saxon ‘spon’, meaning ‘a chip of wood’. The earliest spoons were made out of pretty much anything you could form into a small bowl in order to encourage soup to make the journey to your mouth. Wood, bone, shell, if it holds together for more than three seconds, it’s all gravy.

Another, modern use of the word “spoon” is to describe a measure of energy, useful for people working with energy limiting conditions. If one has a limited number of spoons today, we can assume they might be propped up in bed researching the history
of the spoon rather than lugging out the laundry.

Often, when considering how many spoons we are working with, the answer is “limited.”
If most people are working with a seemingly endless supply of spoons, it can feel unfair when you are working with, say five. Five energy spoons is not enough to work, cook dinner, run.
But we often forget to consider that limited editions can be pretty cool.
One of my challenges this summer is to consider the value of small things. When small things are all you have to work with, it can be easy to focus on weight and quantity. But with nothing else to do, I’ve decided to get granular. Is there more to discover in small things, small movements, energy budgets, choices, step counts, views?
What are the secret pleasures in limitation, if any?

Spoons are small things. I have about five of them to work with today and I’ve decided to pick the following spoons, with reasons outlined below.

1) The Crosby Ravensworth spoons, copper alloy, 200 BC - AD 50
(comes as a pair, good value)

These spoons were found in a bog near Crosby Ravensworth, Westmorland, in Northern England.
The British Museum description starts with this excellent sentence:
“Spoons used by Druids to see the future?”
Clearly we were making our cutlery do a lot more work in Celtic times. But it’s the question mark that really makes it for me.

There’s a very loose theory that liquid might have been dripped through the hole in one spoon onto the other, with attention paid to which quarter the blood/egg/soup settled in giving clues as to the future.
Another guess puts this spoon firmly in my top five. Back then, objects were sacrificed in watery places such as bogs and rivers. These were seen as liminal spaces where one might leave messages for deities or the dead in the Underworld. The spoons were found by a farmer digging in a bog, so it fits. I’m not looking to see the future, but a spoon that sends messages to the gods? Count me in.

More information available on these spoons here

2) Phoenician lizard spoon, bone, 6th-4th century B.C.

Bone spoon, carved to look like a lizard, clearly planning to snap up your food before you get to it.
100% don’t mind, crocodile eats first.
A spoon that is snappy, cunning, food focused and a little bit creepy absolutely makes the cut today.

More information available about this spoon here

3) Bodkin earspoon, 17th century, pewter, carved with initials S.E. (far right)

I’m going to pick this spoon for a couple of reasons.
Firstly, this one is unusually long. This was quite a bit more dagger like than your everyday bodkin. What does this say about the person or indeed the ear? Were they ready to weaponise it? Did they just want it to stand out? Can you imagine the cleaning process?
The accurate answer to this is that a bodkin is primarily used to thread ribbons, cords, laces and drawstrings. The spoon aspect was just a fun addition. I don’t know why designers decided that the best multi-tool add-on was an ear scoop but it’s not any sillier than the toothpick fitting on a penknife so let’s not cast stones.
However, that said, I like to think, quietly and with zero basis, that the owner just wanted their ear scoop to stand out.

“That’s right town meeting, I’m cleaning my EAR. Get a load of THIS!” (elbows neighbour in face)

Secondly, I love that they carved their initials into it. Once again this was a common practice. However, I like to imagine that they were the kind of person who regularly left notes on the ice house asking people to PLEASE stop using all the butter, or that everyone had the same ear spoons and this precaution followed on from a daye of great confusion and terrible noyse and alarums of wrongful spoone claimings.

More accurate information about bodkins here
And more on Lara Maiklem's mudlarking discoveries here

4) Antique Imperial Russian cloisonne spoon, silver, enamel, 1880, approx value £1,500

I don’t have to explain this one. There is nothing you could eat from this spoon except maybe gold dusted macarons and even they would crumble in shame. All spoons are precious when they’re rare. But you might as well include one that looks that way.

If you just want to look at a lot more beautiful Russian spoons, this is the place to go

5) World's largest spoon, 2019, 16.18 metres, Guinness Records. Artist: Uri Geller

If you only have one spoon to use, why not make it the largest and most ridiculous cutlery item in the world? Uri Geller is an illusionist, magician and psychic known chiefly for his ability to bend spoons with his mind. If I’m working with limited spoons, one of them is going to be a completely bananas magical spoon that can alter physical reality.

More information available about this spoon here

These are the five spoons I wish to take through my day. From the majesty of the cloisonne, to the spiky confidence of the ear spoon, I intend to bend matter, summon gods and if none of that works, snap at things with reckless abandon like a Phoenician crocodile.

Ultimately, it’s not about how many spoons you have, it’s about how much bling you can pack into one bowl, how many psychic magicians it takes to bend them, and what deities you can send messages to.