Engraved with a rose, this spoon bears the mark of a silversmith working in Kiel, Germany. The device stamped on the back of the handle indicates that it was made there between 1690 and 1720, though the silversmith associated with the BM mark remains unidentified. The spoon is an example of the early interchange of artifacts between Europe and colonial America. Once it arrived on these shores, it may have been used as a model for silver produced in this country.

Spoons of this design, with lobed, trifid handles and reinforcing rat tails strengthening the joint between the bowl and handle, were produced in America between about 1660 and 1720, though the style persisted longer in Europe than on these shores. This spoon is somewhat unusual in that its most highly decorated surface occurs on the concave side, since early spoons were intended to be displayed with the convex surfaces of their bowls facing up. That this spoon has been decorated in an opposite manner may suggest it is of somewhat later manufacture.

Acquired by the donor from a Miss Lucy Howard, the spoon has a history of descent in the Howard and Chew families of Philadelphia and Baltimore. John Eager Howard served in the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War, as a member of the Continental Congress in 1788, and as a U.S. Senator between 1796 and 1803. In 1787, he married Margaret Chew, the daughter of Benjamin Chew who was the Chief Justice and Attorney General of Pennsylvania. The spoon has also been engraved with the name Elizabeth Berendts, but no records have been located to indicate her identity or her connection to the Chew and Howard families.