Ladle

Description

Delaware silversmith Joseph Warner rose to prominence with steady patronage from his fellow members of the Society of Friends (Quakers) and other clients who sought silver, fancy goods, and general hardware from his Wilmington shop. This elegant punch ladle incorporates a twisted whale baleen handle, giving it a touch of novelty as well as slightly less weight and more flexibility than a turned wooden handle. The oblong silver bowl offers a further, subtle layer of visual fascination. Warner shaped the bowl directly from an imported silver trade coin minted during the reign of Austria’s Habsburg Empress Maria Theresa (1717–1780). Research by Donald Fennimore confirmed that the distorted, barely detectible letters on the bowl’s edge are “IUSTIA ET CLEMENTIA.” Her motto of Justice and Clemency appeared on coins after 1751. Such Maria-Theresa silver coins (thalers) circulated widely as trade dollars in colonial trade and traveled with European immigrants to the Americas.