Spoon of carved wood, the bowl carved with an image of a man in a wig on the inside and with a younger man on horseback on the outside (Charles XI of Sweden) and with the date. The shaft is carved with figures of Adam and Eve, with the Virgin and Child, and with a finial in the form of a monkey

Spoon of carved wood, the bowl carved with an image of a man in a wig on the inside and with a younger man on horseback on the outside and with pious Christian phrases in archaic German and with the date 1676. The two men may represent Charles XI of Sweden on horseback and his Field Marshal at the Battle of Lund, which was fought in 1676. The shaft iscarved with figures of Adam and Eve, with the Virgin and Child, and with a finial in the form of a monkey

Purchased by the Museum from the collection of Ralph Bernal

This spoon was purchased in 1855 from the sale of the collection of Ralph Bernal, for £7.15s (£7.75). At the time it was thought to show the head of one of the German Electors (one of the rulers of the many small states that made up the Holy Roman Empire, and who were entitled to elect the Emperor). This was not an unreasonable guess, as the spoon carries inscriptions in an old-fashioned form of German. The purchase price paid for it by the Museum reflects that it would have been considered a very fine piece of carving. Such pieces were made to reflect fine craftsmanship and might even have been made for inclusion in a sophisticated cabinet of art curios.

The spoon is carved with reliefs showing images of two men, the date 1676, and two pious Christian phrases referring to salvation through the blood of Christ.
It seems likely, therefore, that the spoon was carved to commemorate the Battle of Lund, fought on 4 December 1676 near Lund in Southern Sweden, between the invading Danish army and the army of Charles XI of Sweden (1655-1697). The Swedish army, which was heavily outnumbered, was commanded by Field Marshal Grundel-Helmfeld (1617-1677) and the young Charles XI.

The head of the older man, with a long, curly wig, carved on the inside of the bowl of the spoon, may be that of the Field Marshal. The portrait of the man on horseback on the back of the bowl may be intended for Charles XI. Both these suggested identifications are made on the basis of similarities to portraits of the two men made by the Swedish court painter David Klöcker Ehrenstrahl (1628-1698). He shows the Grundel-Helmfeldt with a bushy, curly wig and strong eybrows. The young king he shows on horseback with flowing, more naturalistic hair and with the wreath of a victor on his head (as here), although the details of his clothes are different.
Following his success in what is now called the Scanian War, the young Charles reigned for twenty years, bringing about great reforms in finance, commerce, the law, church governance and education. He was a devout Lutheran and devoted the rest of this life to economic and social stabilisation and firm rule, taking absolute power as monarch. It was during his rule that a new Swedish hymn book was published and plans set in train for a new translation of the Bible (published after his death, in 1703). A legend has it that he travelled round the country in disguise, wearing a simple grey coat, to identify and punish corruption and oppression of the populace. In 1679 the king married the Danish Princess Ulrika Eleonora. They were a devoted couple and undertook many projects of enlightened development.

The king commemorated the date of the Battle of Lund throughout his life and it was clearly an important event in Swedish history. This spoon appears to have quotations in an archaic form of German carved into it. Sweden held power in a number of areas beyond the Baltic Sea, in the Northern German States (Pomerania and Brandenburg) and in Estonia and Lithuania, where German would have been the usual language.

The carving on the bowl of the spoon is more sophisticated than that on the handle, which shows a naked couple (Adam and Eve), who they sit above a devilish mask, visible on the other side of the handle, from whose mouths trail snake-like forms, above a figure of the Virgin Mary and the Holy Child. The finial of the handle appears to show a monkey. Monkeys in chains were sometimes included in a design to illustrate the idea of man trapped by his earthly and sensual desires, an interpretation that might be supported by the naked figures further up the handle.

Provenance

Ralph Bernal (1783-1854) was a renowned collector and objects from his collection are now in museums across the world, including the V&A. He was born into a Sephardic Jewish family of Spanish descent, but was baptised into the Christian religion at the age of 22. Bernal studied at Christ's College, Cambridge, and subsequently became a prominent Whig politician. He built a reputation for himself as a man of taste and culture through the collection he amassed and later in life he became the president of the British Archaeological Society. Yet the main source of income which enabled him to do this was the profits from enslaved labour.

In 1811, Bernal inherited three sugar plantations in Jamaica, where over 500 people were eventually enslaved. Almost immediately, he began collecting works of art and antiquities. After the emancipation of those enslaved in the British Caribbean in the 1830s, made possible in part by acts of their own resistance, Bernal was awarded compensation of more than £11,450 (equivalent to over £1.5 million today). This was for the loss of 564 people enslaved on Bernal's estates who were classed by the British government as his 'property'. They included people like Antora, and her son Edward, who in August 1834 was around five years old (The National Archives, T 71/49). Receiving the money appears to have led to an escalation of Bernal's collecting.

When Bernal died in 1855, he was celebrated for 'the perfection of his taste, as well as the extent of his knowledge' (Christie and Manson, 1855). His collection was dispersed in a major auction during which the Museum of Ornamental Art at Marlborough House, which later became the South Kensington Museum (now the V&A), was the biggest single buyer.

This finely carved spoon was probably made to commemorate the Battle of Lund, fought in southern Sweden between the invading Danish forces and the Swedes, headed by Field Marshal Simon Grundel-Helmfeld (1617-1677) and the young Swedish King Charles XI (1655-1698). It carries the date ‘1676’ and the two figures carved in low relief on the inside and outside of the bowl relate (somewhat loosely) to portraits of the two men by the Swedish court painter David Klöcker Erhrenstrahl (1616-1677). The carved inscriptions appear to be in an old form of German and consist of pious phrases relating to salvation through the Blood of Christ. This may be an indication that the spoon was carved in the areas of north Germany that were at that time under Swedish rule (Pomerania). The spoon might have been made to be a gift, or purchased by a collector as an example of high craftsmanship, with patriotic symbolism. The figures on the handle include Adam and Even, the Virgin and Child, and a monkey, provoking the viewer to consider the seduction of earthly pleasures in contrast to the value of religious faith.

2142-1855