This silver spoon is decorated in a style done in South India in the 19th century and known as "Swami" work. It was particularly associated with the decoration of jewellery made for Europeans, but was also used for silver plate, again for the European market. "Swami" is an anglicised Sanskrit adjective, correctly rendered"svami" for a male and "svamini" for a female, used to denote a god, goddess, lord, master, husband, distinguished person, or a lover. The term was employed by western writers in the 19th century to denote the essential characteristics of South Indian architecture, but was subsequently adopted by Indo-British manufacturers of jewellery and plate. The leading manufacturer was the firm of P. Orr and Sons of Madras, whose catalogue of c. 1876 describes the style as being "peculiar to South India, and represents in alto relievo or embossed style distinct designs or figures of Heathen deities or "Swamies" of the Hindu Pantheon". The catalogue, undated but produced shortly after the visit of the Prince of Wales to India in 1876, notes that the firm kept a large stock of Swami Jewellery and also of Silver Tea and Dessert services, Spoons, etc, and can generally despatch orders by return post, but for particular patterns, a delay of a few days may unavoidably occur." The catalogue illustrated general sizes and shapes, and noted that particular deities or decorative elements could be combined to order. Similar examples to this spoon are illustrated on p. 21, no. 320, thus identifying it as a fruit spoon. The catalogue notes that they were produced in sets of two, four and six in a morocco case.

The jewellery expert Oppi Untracht identified the source of the designs used by the manufacturers of "Swami" work as almost certainly being Edward Moor's Hindu Pantheon. This was first published in London in 1810 with 105 engraved plates depicting hundreds of Hindu deities, which were issued in their own separate volume in 1861, subsequently revised in an edition of 1864.