An extraordinary and exceedingly rare suite of six Liberty & Co Aesthetic Movement sterling silver spoons, London 1893 – the very first year that silverware was ever assayed and hallmarked under the Liberty name. Each bears the prominent “S.M.” sponsor’s mark of Sadajiro Musashiya, Liberty’s celebrated Japanese collaborator whose work epitomised the firm’s singular marriage of East and West.

Commissioned in the immediate aftermath of Arthur Liberty’s transformative 1889 trip to Japan, these spoons represent the direct fruits of his vision: to bring the artistry, naturalism, and refinement of Japanese decorative design into the homes of London’s most discerning aesthetes. When Liberty & Co’s exquisite textiles found such success with their clientele – consumers newly attuned to aesthetic ideals, naturalistic motifs, and even Darwinian ideas about nature and form – the store expanded into silverwares. Importing Japanese masterpieces in 1892–93, Liberty was compelled to submit them to the London Assay Office to ensure they met the letter of British law. The marks here tell that pioneering tale: London assay, the distinctive “F” for foreign, the date letter “S” for 1893, and Liberty’s own newly registered sponsor’s mark – approved at Goldsmiths’ Hall just in time for these pieces to be retailed.

These spoons are objects of studied artistry and subtle pleasure. The bowls are each formed in the shape of a different flower, rendered with Musashiya’s signature attention to biological accuracy, while the finials are no less inventive – adorned variously with fish, bamboo, a dragonfly, two with fans, and delightfully, a teapot. Few survive; each was not only a feat of craftsmanship but also a conversation piece within the artistic homes of Liberty’s clientele.

As Oscar Wilde once quipped, “Liberty is the chosen resort of the artistic shopper” – and here is Liberty at its most artistic and distinguished.