A silver stone set arts and crafts spoon by Mildred Webb

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This is a rare if modest spoon by the little (indeed largely unknown) maker / teacher, (Ada) Mildred Webb.  It would not normally make its way to my website but it provides the opportunity to write about another of these forgotten women silversmiths/teachers.  The spoon is plain with chased floral design, topped with a small red stone that I believe is carnelian. The spoon is marked for Mildred Webb, Birmingham 1913.

Mildred Webb was born in 1881 and studied at the Margaret Street department of Birmingham Municipal School of Art in Birmingham, England in c.1909-11. A necklace designed by her was exhibited at the Royal Society of Birmingham Artists in 1909; and casket in silver and Limoges enamel by her (“Tennyson Idylls of the King” was shown in the 1913 Ghent International Exhibition and the same at the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society exhibition at the Royal Academy in 1916. The casket is illustrated in ‘The Studio’ February 1917 (p.18, Vol 70, Issue 287). See images. She registered her mark on 8th July 1913 when living at Worcester. She died in 1964.

In the 1911 census she is listed as “Teacher of art metalworker”, and I assume that would have been at the Worcester School of Science and Art.

It is possible that the spoon is a student’s piece given the disparity in quality and ambition compared to the casket featyred in the Studio by the same silversmith.

Maker:  Mildred Webb

Designer:  Mildred Webb

Date:  1913

Marks: W/M, Birmingham, o

Material: Sterling silver

Condition: Very good

Size: 14.25 cm long

Weight: 14 grams, 0.5 0z