George III silver sugar tongs

Source catalog description

This description refers to material held by Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. Visual details below describe the original material.

A set of George III silver sugar tongs from Thomas Wallis II, London. They are a narrow U-shaped piece of metal that terminate in shallow scallop-shell shaped bowls at each end. At the top of the tongs the bend in the metal is a solid plain silver with no decoration. The arms of the tongs are open metal fretwork, done in a pattern of small circles and larger ovals divided in half. The pattern begins at one end of each arm with a pair of two large ovals, each divided in half. Below them are four small circles arranged in a square. This pattern repeated once more, then the fretwork pattern terminates in a circle divided into three sections, on top of a long narrow neck. The arms are finished at each end by a stylized scallop-shell scoop.

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