Description

A lovely little antique silver toy chamberstick with the long handle typical of the period. It looks like an exact copy of a full size original. Length 7.2 cms. Diameter 2.7 cms. Marked underneath with a Dutch makers mark*. Hoorn, Netherlands. Circa 1700.

Literature: Silver toys in the 16th and 17th century were made predominately for the children of kings and queens. The Dutch were the leading manufacturers, their most prolific period being 1725-1750, and by then wealthy royalty, landowners and business men were buying toys for their own pleasure as well as that of their children’s. During that period England was still suffering under Puritanism and it wasn’t until the Restoration of Charles II in 1660 that silver toys were made available in this country. The earliest English silver toys date from 1665 and were made in London; it was uncommon for toys to be made in the provinces.

Signed/Inscribed: *the three leave clover with crown is a unknown maker’s mark. This silversmith is assumed to have been working in the city of Hoorn around the end of the 17th-early 18th century, according to the famous Dutch silver toy seller John Endlich and Emiel Aardewerk.