| Another fascinating and anomalous design from the same period is the John Vansant (Philadelphia) pattern shown below. The handle of this coffee spoon has a stepped finial and is stamped with sundry images, including a fly, a creature seeming to have a kangaroo's head and manatee's body, a crescent moon, a lightning bolt, and so on. There is no ostensible relationship between any of these. Sometimes this olio of motifs is even seen stamped around a classical medallion. I have only seen a few of these Vansant pieces on the market, again suggesting that the design was probably avant-garde in its time and there was likely only a small customer base.
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