The wavy-end spoon was succeeded by the spatulate type, first produced in England about 1710 and in the American colonies the following decade. The earliest examples retain the rat-tail joint, which was soon replaced with either a spatulate drop or a Late Baroque stylized shell. By mid-century a simple double drop, as seen on the Bayou Bend spoons, was introduced as an alternative. The earliest American teaspoons were fashioned during this period. However, it is highly unusual at this date to have matching dining and teaspoons.

Related examples: French 1939, p. 52, no. 312; Antiques 102 (September 1972), p. 368.

Book excerpt: David B. Warren, Michael K. Brown, Elizabeth Ann Coleman, and Emily Ballew Neff. American Decorative Arts and Paintings in the Bayou Bend Collection. Houston: Princeton Univ. Press, 1998.