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In my last entry, we looked at how early modern metalworkers used clever \u201cmodular\u201d casting tricks to customise their wares, drawing a comparison to the famous Apostle spoons of the Tudor and Stuart eras. Reading back over those paragraphs, I realised I hadn\u2019t yet documented one of my earliest and absolute favourite local finds\u2014an actual Apostle spoon! It is a beautiful piece of tableware with a fascinating story to tell, but it hides a cheeky little manufacturing secret that perfectly highlights the line between an ancient relic and a clever Victorian replica.<\/p>\n
I found this item way back in 2017, practically my first year out detecting. At the time, I had just the one permission in West Grimstead and absolutely no idea how historically rich a location it would turn out to be. Equipped with a modest, mid-range detector, I slogged my way up to the very top of a sloped pasture. The climb winded me a bit, as I hadn’t yet learned the golden rule of going “low and slow.”<\/p>\n
About halfway back down the incline, my machine let out a crazy loud signal. Even though my stomach was rumbling and I was purposefully heading home for lunch, the sheer urgency of the signal stopped me in my tracks. I just had to dig it up. When I peeled back the turf, I pulled out something completely beyond my experience at the time: a delicate little spoon with a tiny, beautifully detailed religious figure perched right on the top. I was absolutely hooked.<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/vrharbor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/spoon2017-04-22-.png\")
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This Electroplated Nickel Silver (EPNS) spoon represents St. James the Greater, and over the decades, its time in the Wiltshire soil has given it a rich, warm, copper-coloured patina. Despite its long sleep, the tiny cast figurine at the top of the handle\u2014known as the \u201cfinial\u201d\u2014has survived with remarkable detail. The figure is crowned with a flat, circular halo (historically known as a nimbus) and wears flowing garments. Running down the left side of his robe is a distinct, raised vertical line. In traditional spoon-making, fragile elements like walking sticks were cast flat against the body so they wouldn\u2019t snap off. This is a pilgrim\u2019s staff, identifying him as St. James, the patron saint of pilgrims.<\/p>\n
At first glance, finding a spoon depicting a medieval saint near ancient parish paths feels like a ticket straight back to the 16th century! But when I cleaned off the dirt inside the bowl, the maker\u2019s marks told a very different story: EP [♥] NS.<\/p>\n
To my untrained eye, these looked like classic 17th-century silver hallmarks. However, this is actually a Victorian pseudo-hallmark. During the late 19th-century Gothic Revival, manufacturers stamped replicas with deceptive marks that were actually clever abbreviations for modern materials: EP for Electroplated, and NS for Nickel Silver.<\/p>\n
Because these ornate spoons were traditionally given as christening gifts to be kept as treasured keepsakes, they carried a deep sentimental value. It is incredibly easy to picture a bright Saturday afternoon in the late 1890s, with a local family gathered in the village pasture to celebrate a birth. In the bustling excitement of the outdoor gathering, the prized gift slips off a table and into the deep grass, lost to time until my detector crossed its path 130 years later. It sits proudly on my display shelf today as a fantastic piece of social history\u2014a bridge between the deep medieval past of our parish and the vibrant, close-knit community that shaped West Grimstead at the turn of the century. As my detecting career proceeded, I would soon find that indeed, every find tells a story!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
In my last entry, we looked at how early modern metalworkers used clever \u201cmodular\u201d casting tricks to customise their wares, drawing a comparison to the famous Apostle spoons of the Tudor and Stuart eras. Reading back over those paragraphs, I realised I hadn\u2019t yet documented one of my earliest and absolute favourite local finds\u2014an actual […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14803,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[11488],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14795","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-metal-detecting","has-thumbnail"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/vrharbor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/spoon2017-04-22-.png","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pDxlf-3QD","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vrharbor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14795","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vrharbor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vrharbor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vrharbor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vrharbor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14795"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/vrharbor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14795\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14802,"href":"https:\/\/vrharbor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14795\/revisions\/14802"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vrharbor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vrharbor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vrharbor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vrharbor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}