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Author Topic:   What is this Spoon?
Paul Lemieux

Posts: 1792
Registered: Apr 2000

iconnumber posted 10-23-2012 09:21 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Paul Lemieux     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Here is a fascinating antique spoon I found recently. It is unmarked, about 5" long. Some of the silverwork is similar to Indonesian items I have seen, but that is only a guess.

The three bars with curled ends move back and forth freely within the open shape at the top. The finial is tiny bird.

Does anybody know what the handle of this spoon depicts? Where the spoon might be from? The bowl has an unusual shape, and I am not sure if it is related to a specific function or purely decorative.

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Polly

Posts: 1970
Registered: Nov 2004

iconnumber posted 10-24-2012 03:11 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Polly     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
How intriguing! I hope somebody knows and tells us!

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ahwt

Posts: 2334
Registered: Mar 2003

iconnumber posted 10-25-2012 09:18 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for ahwt     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
The bird on top could be a butcher bird; a bird that kills more than it can immediately eat and hangs the rest of their kill upon thorns for later consumption- similar to how a butcher hangs meat upon hooks.

The three bars could be meat hooks that represent the thorns. They remind me of hooks my father used to hang meat in his meat market’s walk-in cooler. One end hung on a bar and the other end was driven into the carcass.

Why someone would make a spoon based on this rather improbable interpretation is another question.

In any event it is an interesting spoon.

[This message has been edited by ahwt (edited 10-25-2012).]

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vathek

Posts: 966
Registered: Jun 99

iconnumber posted 10-26-2012 03:43 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for vathek     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
It represents a systrum, an ancient musical instrument. Google systrum then look at 'images'.

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Scott Martin
Forum Master

Posts: 11520
Registered: Apr 93

iconnumber posted 10-26-2012 10:24 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Scott Martin     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
quote:
A sistrum (plural: sistrums or Latin sistra) is a musical instrument of the percussion family, chiefly associated with ancient Iraq and Egypt. It consists of a handle and a U-shaped metal frame, made of brass or bronze and between 76 and 30 cm in width. When shaken the small rings or loops of thin metal on its movable crossbars produce a sound that can be from a soft CLANK to a loud jangling. The name derives from the Greek verb σείω, seio, to shake, and σείστρον, seistron, is that which is being shaken. Its name in the ancient Egyptian language was sekhem (sḫm) and sesheshet (sššt). Sekhem is the simpler, hoop-like sistrum, while sesheshet (an onomatopoeic word) is the naos-shaped one.

    A sekhem style sistrum.


    Isis holding a sistrum and an oinochoe.
    oinochoe = (Ancient Greek: οἰνοχόη) is a wine jug.




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