Featured All Aboard the S.S. Pap Boat!

Here's somethin' you don't see every day!

...mostly because they stopped making them about 200 years ago...



This is a George III sterling silver pap boat, from the second half of the 1700s, hallmarked in London.

...That's all I can tell you because all the other marks are rubbed.

The marks are:

[MAKER'S MARK] [Lion Passant] [Crowned Leopard's Head] [Date Letter] [Duty Mark George III, looking right]

According to my research, the duty mark which closest matches mine is from 1795. So that's what I'm dating this piece at.

Pap boats were en vogue from about 1710-1820, and they were small, handheld silver vessels for feeding babies 'pap' (a sort of soft, milky sweet porridge).

'Pap' was also an old-fashioned word for 'breast' or 'nipple'.

 

No one stopped making pap boats .......... http://www.replacements.com/webquote/kiswil.htm

 

Great , I thought we were all going to get a pap smear !

 

The sources I read said they died out in the 1800s.

 

Hi,
i have several but in porcelain, easier to clean. They were used to feed people suffering from disease and deformities. Mine are all from the 1900s.
greg

 

In ceramics etc, they probably lasted longer, but in silver, according to at least three websites I came across, it says they died out by the mid Victorian era. So probably 1860/70s.