Spoon thumbnail 1
Not on display

Spoon

1850-1869 (made)
Place of origin

Reporting on the Museum’s Iranian holdings to date in May 1873, Robert Murdoch Smith assessed a set of wooden spoons a follows: “All these spoons are made of the wood of the pear tree at the small town of Abadeh (not Shiraz). They are usually made in three sizes, the largest for taking sherbet, the medium size for soup, pilau etc. and the smallest for pickles. These are fair specimens of this kind of work.” (V&A Archives).

Object details

Category
Object type
Parts
This object consists of 2 parts.

  • Spoon
  • Bag of Fragments
Materials and techniques
Carving, and adhered with glue
Brief description
Carved wooden spoon, Iran (probably Abadeh), Qajar period, 1850-1869
Physical description
Wooden spoon with a large boat-shaped bowl carved with vertical ribbing, fixed to a long rectangular handle decorated in openwork floral patterning.
Dimensions
  • Length: 33.5cm
  • Handle width: 3.2cm
Object history
This spoon was purchased at the Paris Exhibition of 1867 for 16 shillings.
Summary
Reporting on the Museum’s Iranian holdings to date in May 1873, Robert Murdoch Smith assessed a set of wooden spoons a follows: “All these spoons are made of the wood of the pear tree at the small town of Abadeh (not Shiraz). They are usually made in three sizes, the largest for taking sherbet, the medium size for soup, pilau etc. and the smallest for pickles. These are fair specimens of this kind of work.” (V&A Archives).
Bibliographic references
  • Major R. Murdoch Smith, Persian Art (Chapman and Hall: London, 1876), p. 38-9.
  • Diba, Layla S. (Ed.) Royal Persian Paintings: The Qajar Epoch, 1785-1925 London, 1998 p.214, fig.64a
Collection
Accession number
928:1-1869

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Record createdJune 24, 2009
Record URL
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