Dessert spoon (one of a set of four)

1813-1822

Maker

Henry J. Pepper (1789-1853)

Measurements

7-1/2 in x 1-1/2 in x 3/4 in

Materials

Silver

Credit Line

Historic Odessa Foundation, gift of Mrs. D. Meredith Reese

Accession Number

1978.47

Inscription

“DAW” / 1806 / MWC / 1847 / MCC / 1876" is engraved on the front of the handle; “H J PEPPER” in relief within a rectangle is stamped into the back of the handle.

Provenance

The set of spoons descended from David Wilson Jr. and Ann Jefferis Wilson, who married in 1808, to their daughter Mary Corbit Wilson, who married Daniel Corbit in 1847, to their daughter Mary Cowgill Corbit, who married Edward Tatnall Warner in 1876.  Having no surviving children, Mary Warner likely gave the spoons to Ann Louise Corbit, the donor, who was her niece

Comments

The dessert spoons have pointed oval bowls and fiddleback handles that gently curves downward.  The engraved initials and dates were added at three separate times.  “DAW” is the earliest campaign, set in the conventional location on the handle.  “MWC” and “MCC” appear to be in the same hand and, representing the next two generations of ownership, must have been added by Mary Cowgill Corbit before her marriage to Edward Tatnall Warner in 1876, at which time her initials changed.  After her marriage, she had the three wedding dates added, although the she used the date of 1806 instead or 1808.

These four spoons are very similar to a pair (accession no. 1978.48) with the same engraving and provenance.  Those are marked only with "COIN," a designation of the silver purity that generally was not stamped onto silver objects until the late 1820s, after Ann Jefferis Wilson died.  The object-dating implications are not fully resolved.

Bibliography

Zimmerman, A Storied Past, p. 48, fig. 25.