Object Type
Sugar sifters are small ladle-shaped spoons which could be used at the table to take the powdered sugar from sugar bowls or sugar baskets and sprinkle it over fruit, puddings or cakes. During the 19th century refined sugar became cheaper and thus readily available to a larger section of the population.

Design & Designing
Sugar sifter spoons developed in the mid-18th century and are similar in form and size to sauce ladles, but with flattened bowl bases. The bowls were decorated with elaborate pierced patterns. It is not usually possible to identify the artist or designer responsible for a particular design on a piece of cutlery. In this case, however, a passage in the biography of the painter and draughtsman Thomas Stothard (1755-1834), who also designed silver, suggests that he may have created the Bacchanalian pattern on the handle of this sugar sifter. It states that Stothard 'made another masterly set of drawings for the house of Messrs Rundell and Bridge of Bacchanals. These were intended for the handles of knives and forks.' The Bacchanalian pattern was made from 1812 by Rundells' workshop manager and partner Paul Storr (1771-1844), but only for dessert ware. Storr continued to make this pattern from original moulds into the 1830s, and in the mid-century his successors Hunt and Roskell and the prestigious silver spoon and fork manufacturers Chawner & Co., directed by G.W. Adams (1808-1895), made cutlery in the Bacchanalian design.