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SPOON (O. Eng. span, a chip or splint...

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Originally appearing in Volume V25, Page 733 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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SPOON (O. Eng. span, a chip or splinter of wood, cf. Du. spoon, Ger. Spahn, in same sense, probably related to Gr. r4 v, wedge)  , a table implement, bowl-shaped at the end, with a handle varying in length and
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size . From the derivation of the word the earliest
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northern
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European spoon would seem to have been a chip or splinter of wood; the Greek KoyXt4tov (
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Lat. cochleare) points to the early and natural use of shells, such as are still used by
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primitive peoples . Examples are preserved of the various forms of spoons used by the ancient Egyptians of ivory, flint, slate and wood, many of them carved with the symbols of their religion . The spoons of the Greeks and Romans were chiefly made of
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bronze and
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silver, and the handle usually takes the form of a spike or pointed stem . There are many examples in the
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British Museum from which the form of the various types can be ascertained, the chief points of difference being found in the junction of the bowl with the handle .
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Medieval spoons for domestic use were commonly made of horn or wood, but brass,
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pewter and " latten " spoons appear to have been
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common about the r 5th century . The full descriptions and entries relat
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ing to silver spoons in the inventories of the royal and other households point to their
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special value and rarity . The earliest
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English reference appears to be in a will of 1259 . In the ward-robe accounts of
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Edward I. for the
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year 1300 some gold and silver spoons marked with the fleur-de-lis, the Paris mark, are mentioned . One of the most interesting medieval spoons is the coronation spoon used in the
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anointing of the
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sovereign, an
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illustration of which is given under REGALIA . The sets ofspoons popular as christening presents in Tudor times, the handles of which terminate in heads or busts of the apostles, are a special form to which antiquarian
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interest attaches (see APOSTLE SPOONS) . The earlier English spoon-handles terminate in an
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acorn, plain knob or a
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diamond; at the end of the 16th century the baluster and seal ending becomes common, the bowl being " fig-shaped." At the Restoration the handle becomes broad and flat, the bowl is broad and oval and the termination is cut into the shape known as the pied de biche, or
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hind's
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foot .

In the first

quarter of the 18th century the bowl becomes narrow and elliptical, with a tongue or " rat's tail " down the back, and the handle is turned up at the end . The
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modern form, with the tip of the bowl narrower than the
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base and the rounded end of the handle turned down, came into use about 176o . See C . J . Jackson, " The Spoon and its
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History," in Archaeologia (1892), vol. liii.; also Cripps, Old English
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Plate .

End of Article: SPOON (O. Eng. span, a chip or splinter of wood, cf. Du. spoon, Ger. Spahn, in same sense, probably related to Gr. r4 v, wedge)
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