Teaspoon

Art Historical Context

This delicate teaspoon, crafted around 1770–80 in Sheffield, England, exemplifies the ingenuity of British metalwork during the Georgian era. Measuring just 4 3/4 inches (12.1 cm), it was fashioned from Sheffield plate—a groundbreaking technique developed in the mid-18th century that fused a thin layer of silver onto a copper core through a rolling process. Invented locally by Thomas Boulsover around 1743, this method democratized luxury tableware, offering the gleam of silver at a fraction of the cost of solid sterling pieces. Tea drinking had exploded in popularity across Britain by the lat...