Stock No. 7101	Pair George III silver salt shovels
	Pair George III sterling silver salt shovels. London circa 1775. The stems of the salt shovels turn up at the end in the Hanoverian style with a very attractive ridge. The sides of the shovels are slightly shaped. The hallmarks consist of the lion passant silver standard mark and the makers' mark. These are stamped on the back of the stem at the base. In spite of the fact that the stems are so thin, it is still possible to make out the makers' mark when looking at both stems together.
	Maker :- William Sumner and Richard Crossley

Condition :-Excellent, with readable hallmarks
Hallmarked :- London 1775
Size :- 3.7 inches (9.4 cm) long
Weight :- 0.41 ozt (12.9 g)
Salt shovels seem to be the earliest style of salt spoons still existing. There is a pair of unmarked shovels dating from about 1730 in the Ashmoleum Museum in Oxford but most dateable shovels can only be found after 1750. Late-medieval books on etiquette advise that salt should be taken from the salt cellar with a clean knife or with the fingers. By 1643, a salt spoon was mentioned in a will but what shape this spoon had is unknown. Both William Sumner and Richard Crossley were excellent spoonmakers. Richard Crossley was at the start of that dynastic chain of top quality spoonmakers, through the George Smiths, the Eleys and Fearns and Chawners to George Adams in the mid Victorian era of the nineteenth century.

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