Early Victorian silver Queens pattern part canteen by Mary Chawner, with a palmette motif to...

Early Victorian silver Queens pattern part canteen by Mary Chawner, with a palmette motif to heel, comprising eighteen dessert spoons, twelve table spoons, eighteen table forks, eighteen dessert forks, twenty three teaspoons, five salt spoons, two gravy spoons, four ladles, a caddy spoon, a pair of sugar nips and a fish slice.  Hallmarked Mary Chawner London 1838 and 1839.  Together with six associated table forks of a similar Queens pattern with an oyster shell heel, hallmarked Jonathan Hayne London 1835, and a Kings pattern teaspoon, hallmarked Martin, Hall & Co., Sheffield 1882.  All in a large, fitted brass bound oak box by Hunt & Roskell.  Gross combined silver weight 261.27 ozt (8126.8 grams) (110 pieces).

The pieces by Mary Chawner are believed to bear the crest of Young of Kingerby, Lincs.  The crest depicts a wolf sitting erect and looking back over its shoulder, holding between the paws a crowned head looking to the front.  The origins of the crest are thought to refer to St Edmund, who was made King of East Anglia in AD 855.  In AD 870 he was defeated in battle by the Danes and subsequently beheaded.  The head was separated from the body and thrown into the wood.  Legend says that when the remains of St Edmund were sought from the forest, the head was found resting between the forepaws of a wolf, who was sent by God to protect it from the other animals.  The body and head of St. Edmund were finally interred at what is now called Bury St Edmunds in AD 923.