Seal top spoon, John Reeve of Bath, c.1650

Seal-top spoon George Reeve I (about 1620–1676) Bath, silver-gilt, about 1664 1984.2 The seal is pricked: WA/1664/AH Presented by the Friends of the Holburne in memory of Charles Robertson and purchased with a grant-in-aid from the Victoria & Albert Museum, 1984 A Family Business: The Reeve Family of Bath With its wool industry, rich farmland and busy ports, the West Country prospered in the seventeenth century. More and more people were able to afford silver objects. All the spoons here (S469, S222, 1984.2, S288) were made by the Reeve family of Bath. Their family memorial is still in Bath Abbey. Is this Bath Abbey? Spencer Reeve arrived in Bath from Crewkerne, Somerset in about 1623 and set up shop in the Abbey Churchyard. This spoon he made is marked with what may be a view of West Front of Bath Abbey. If so this is the only known piece of silver to bear a Bath town mark. Spencer’s son George took over the family business in the 1650s. Business thrived and he became a prosperous citizen and city councillor. When the queen visited Bath in 1663 it was George who presented the silver ewer and basin to her. The first four of George’s sons died young. But Matthew – baptised in the Abbey in 1647 – survived to take over the business. Like his father he also served on the City Council but was accused of treason in 1683. He was acquitted in 1685 but subsequently emigrated to Barbados.