Museum Collections

This spoon was made for Johannes Schenck and his wife, Maria Magdalena De Haes, who married in the Netherlands in 1683 and shortly thereafter emigrated to New Amsterdam. The couple settled in Flatbush, Brooklyn by 1691 and in 1712 Schenck purchased a mill plantation of approximately 115 acres in Bushwick. Spoons of this type, with broad oval bowls and cast handles, based on Dutch prototypes, were produced by New York silversmiths of Dutch descent from the 1680s until around 1700. About a dozen of these rare spoons survive, but this is the only example embellished with a visual pun referring to its owner. Engraved on the reverse of the spoon bowl is Schenck's personal mark: a shapely coffeepot with steam issuing enticingly from its spout. The mark is a creative reference to Schenck's surname, which means to pour or decant.