Fantastic set of 32 silver-plated spoons and forks personally owned and used by Charles Dickens at Gad's Hill Place, all elegantly engraved with his monogram in fancy script, "CD." Includes ten dessert spoons, ten forks, ten tea spoons, and two tiny salt spoons, all of a matching fiddle leaf thread pattern, with manufacturer's stamps of Martin, Hall & Co. of Sheffield, circa 1860. In overall very good to fine condition, with light wear from use.
Provenance: Lot 227, English Literature and History including The Charles Dickens Archive, Sotheby's, July 15, 1999. Accompanied by a photocopy of the Sotheby's catalog page, which depicts all 32 pieces and notes that two of the novelist's children, Henry Fielding Dickens and Kate Perugini, attested to Dickens's ownership and use of the silverware set. Unfortunately, those letters have been lost, as has later correspondence documenting their ownership by actor Bransby Williams, and the purchase of the silverware for the Bleak House Collection in 1962.
