{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O91798"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O91798/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2009CB7259/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2009CB7259/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2009CB7259","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2009CB7260","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017JU1482","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O91798/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O91798","accessionNumber":"2345-1855","objectType":"Spoon","titles":[],"summaryDescription":"This cowrie-shell spoon could have been kept in a Kunstkammer, but it may also have been used for particular purposes, for example for taking medicine, or for eating caviar, as the lack of silver on the bowl avoided the problem of oxidisation. Although the cowrie shell is inexpensive now, it was rare and exotic in the 16th century; a worthy addition to a princely cabinet and a splendid banquet. The silver mount added monetary value to that accorded by the marvellous nature of the shell. Unusual cutlery often functioned as conversation pieces at banquets, as the diners discussed the materials, value and make of the objects they handled. The owner's coat of arms on the spoon ensured that he was accorded the kudos due to him for the possession of such an artefact, and more prosaically prevented controversy over ownership, as it was passed around the table to be admired.","physicalDescription":"The bowl formed of the segment of a large cowrie shell; silver-gilt handle, fluted, with a flat end in form of a shield, on which is enamelled the fore part of a horse. Argent on gules background.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Unknown","id":"A1848"},"association":{"text":"","id":""},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"shell","id":"AAT11834"},{"text":"silver","id":"AAT11029"},{"text":"gold","id":"AAT11021"},{"text":"enamel","id":"AAT14910"}],"techniques":[{"text":"gilding","id":"x39207"},{"text":"enamelling","id":"x37485"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Cowrie shell; silver-gilt handle, enamelled","categories":[{"text":"Metalwork","id":"THES48920"},{"text":"Tableware & cutlery","id":"THES48888"},{"text":"Enslavement","id":"THES396519"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"MET","id":"THES48599"},"images":["2009CB7259","2009CB7260","2017JU1482"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"62","id":"THES49739"},"free":"","case":"CA6","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"Spoon","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Germany","id":"x28873"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":"possibly"},{"place":{"text":"Switzerland","id":"x29199"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":"possibly"}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"ca. 1530-1540","earliest":"1525-01-01","latest":"1540-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"12.6","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"5","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Depth","value":"3.4","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Weight","value":"0.04","unit":"kg","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"Measured for the Medieval and Renaissance Galleries","marksAndInscriptions":[{"content":"Shield on fore part of horse","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":"A8728"},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"","note":""},{"content":"Unmarked","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":"A8728"},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"","note":""}],"objectHistory":"Purchased from the collection of Ralph Bernal.\n\n<u>Provenance</u>\r\n\r\nRalph Bernal (1783-1854) was a renowned collector and objects from his collection are now in museums across the world, including the V&A. He was born into a Sephardic Jewish family of Spanish descent, but was baptised into the Christian religion at the age of 22. Bernal studied at Christ's College, Cambridge, and subsequently became a prominent Whig politician. He built a reputation for himself as a man of taste and culture through the collection he amassed and later in life he became the president of the British Archaeological Society. Yet the main source of income which enabled him to do this was the profits from enslaved labour.\r\n\r\nIn 1811, Bernal inherited three sugar plantations in Jamaica, where over 500 people were eventually enslaved. Almost immediately, he began collecting works of art and antiquities. After the emancipation of those enslaved in the British Caribbean in the 1830s, made possible in part by acts of their own resistance, Bernal was awarded compensation of more than £11,450 (equivalent to over £1.5 million today). This was for the loss of 564 people enslaved on Bernal's estates who were classed by the British government as his 'property'. They included people like Antora, and her son Edward, who in August 1834 was around five years old (The National Archives, T 71/49). Receiving the money appears to have led to an escalation of Bernal's collecting.\r\n\r\nWhen Bernal died in 1855, he was celebrated for 'the perfection of his taste, as well as the extent of his knowledge' (Christie and Manson, 1855). His collection was dispersed in a major auction during which the Museum of Ornamental Art at Marlborough House, which later became the South Kensington Museum (now the V&A), was the biggest single buyer. ","historicalContext":"Secondary sources argue that mother of pearl and cowrie shell spoons were typical ‘kunstkammer’ objects. The Couverts de l’art gothique exhibition also says that mother of pearl spoons were sometimes used for special purposes, for example for taking medicine or as poison detectors, which indicates that spoons made of exotic materials were actively used. Giuliano Boggiali says that cowrie shell spoons were used for eating caviar and seafood, because of the lack of oxidisation. As with coral spoons, there are indications that cowrie-shell spoons were used on special occasions and sometimes left the display cabinet. The fact that another cowrie-shell spoon in the V&A collections has a fork attachment at the back of the spoon adds credence to the idea that cowrie-shell spoons were used on occasion, as spoons with fork attachments.  This can be seen in paintings of banquets, such as that of ‘Lazarus and the rich man’s table’, 1618, by Gasper van der Hoeke (front cover of Pleasures of the Table, York 1997).\r\n\r\nOther examples of cowrie shell spoons are not numerous, however the inventory of Charlotte de Savoie, Queen of France, made in 1483, does contain a \"<font -i>cuilleur de porcelayne garnye d’argent doré</font>\", where \"<font -i>porcelayne</font>\" has been variously interpreted as either mother-of-pearl or cowrie.\r\n\r\nCowrie (in this case it is the Cypraea Tigris) comes from the coral reefs of the Indo-Pacific region.","briefDescription":"Spoon, with bowl formed of the segment of a large cowrie shell; made in Germany or Switzerland, late 16th century or 17th century","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"<u>Couverts de l'Art Gothique à l'Art Nouveau: Collection Jacques Hollander</u>. Nice 1994."},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Boggiali, Giuliano. <u>La Posata</u>. 1987."},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Klaus Marquardt, Eight Centuries of European Knives, Forks and Spoons, Germany 1997."},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Giovanni Pontano, De Splendore, 1498."},{"reference":{"text":"Christie and Manson, <i>Catalogue of the Celebrated Collection of Works of Art, from the Byzantine Period to that of Louis Seize, of that Distinguished Collector, Ralph Bernal</i> (London, 1855)","id":"AUTH403540"},"details":"","free":""},{"reference":{"text":"The National Archives of the UK (TNA): Slave Registers: Jamaica: St. Ann. (1) Indexed, 1832, T 71/49","id":"AUTH403536"},"details":"","free":""},{"reference":{"text":"Hannah Young, ''The perfection of his taste': Ralph Bernal, collecting and slave-ownership in 19th-century Britain', <i>Cultural and Social History</i>, 19:1 (2022), pp. 19-37 ","id":"AUTH403542"},"details":"","free":""}],"production":"Germany or Switzerland; Maker unidentified","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[{"text":"Bernal, Ralph","id":"C2927"}],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[{"text":"horses","id":"x34864"}],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["2345-1855"],"accessionNumberNum":"2345","accessionNumberPrefix":"","accessionYear":1855,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":["2019LV3777","2019LW5526","2019LV8873"],"recordModificationDate":"2025-04-12","recordCreationDate":"2004-02-09","availableToBook":false}}