Unknown finial on possible silver spoon

Unmistakably a female figure to the finial, spoon is unmarked but quite possibly silver. Spoon is 4.3 inches long, 18g weight, twist handle.

Some of the obvious search terms lead to interesting places!

Any thoughts on who, where and when welcomed.

 

Here was a recent thread on some similar looking spoons... regarding size, use.

https://www.antiquers.com/threads/what-are-these-2-spoons-used-for.6539/#post-90073

But your finial takes the cake! Am I correct in perceiving she is robed but with her breasts exposed?

 

Delicately put, but yes!

 

Poor thing! That shot to the head is SO painful!!

 

Normally (as I'm sure you know) these are "apostles" and male. Maybe this one is a female saint, martyred with the hole in the head?

 

She was found with a silver apostle spoon, not that I want to spread gossip!

Have searched for abbess, nun and female saint finials before I posted but haven't had any hits. The nudity seems more than coincidental/wear, maybe rending clothes?

 

Perhaps St Agatha?

 

That's a good call and must be a possibility.

 

And a very good one at that. Not being Catholic, I had to look her up.

 

I get a NA or South American feel to the woman. She may be dressed in a feather skirt with a shawl and wearing moccasins.

--- Susan

Edit: I meant to add that because it has a figural finial and a twist handle, doesn't make it an apostle spoons. There are a myriad of figural twist handle spoons that are not apostle spoons. Following is a link to Spoon Planet. If you have a week or so of free time you might "thumb" through the web pages!

http://spoonplanet.com/exhibits.html
http://spoonplanet.com/apostle.html

Another thread we need Cheryl to chime in on!

 

Hey, Susan, she doesn't look familiar to me, and agree that not all figural twist-handle spoons are apostle spoons - not at home right now, but can look through Rainwater's 'Spoons Around the World ' later. She does look Hindu to me, with a bindi on her forehead - no idea on the nekkid boobies, but not unusual to to see Indian deities so exposed, though she doesn't look like a goddess to me... Closest thing found in quick online search: https://www.etsy.com/listing/245258004/vintage-3-unusual-apostle-spoons?ref=market

Just a quick note on the expansive Spoon Planet/Museum site, which often only shows partial pictures and rarely shows marks - it has a number of inaccuracies, though there seems to have been a few corrections and updates added recently. As an example, on the 'Apostle Spoons' page, while now acknowledging Hanau silver on a separate link, the third spoon is described as 'Augsberg', but more likely bears Hanau pseudo-marks, the 'simulated British marks' are more likely typical British import marks, and the 'handworked' bowl appears to be of the usual cast variety - but since the pics are so limited, only supposition on my part...

~Cheryl

 

Thanks Cheryl, I can see similarities in design with the Etsy spoons and had not thought of an Indian deity. I'll be very interested if something similar or matching is in Rainwater's 'Spoons Around the World '.

Steve

 

>She does look Hindu to me, with a bindi on her forehead - no idea on the nekkid boobies, but not unusual to to see Indian deities so exposed, though she doesn't look like a goddess to me<

Hindu! That is surly a good idea. Gee, you are good Cheryl. The last couple of times I've rubbed the magic lamp and wished for you, you have popped up with answers!

Speaking of the Spoon Planet/Museum site, this morning I tried to get into the site resulting in my virus alerts - bells, whistles, red flags, etc... - going off blocking my entry to the site. I've never had troubles before with that site. Anyone else having such trouble? I wonder if that site has been hacked with bugs planted??? Of course it could be a false positive on the part of my virus scanners.

--- Susan