Antique Spoon. Asian or European?

My thoughts are: 19th C. Chinese copy of a 15th/16th/17th C. European spoon, but I could be wrong. Your thoughts, if any?

The spoon is made of: brass or gilt-pewter, copper rivets, tiger-cowrie shell, a small branch of black-coral as the handle and mother-of-pearl. The mother-of-pearl finial is engraved with the Chinese character, 'Shou (longevity)'.

A couple of somewhat similar European spoons with shell bowls and/or coral handle with rivets:

http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O91798/spoon-unknown/

http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O294981/spoon/

Thank you!

 

No idea but the pictures are good.

 

Nice piece, love the handle. I found this info. on black coral.

Black corals (Antipatharia) are a group of deep water, tree-like corals related tosea anemones. They are also found in rare dark shallow water areas such as New Zealand's Milford Sound where they can be viewed from an underwater observatory or via SCUBA diving. They normally occur in the tropics. There are about 230 known species of Antipatharians in 42 genera.[1]

Though black coral's living tissue is brilliantly colored, it takes its name from the distinctive black or dark brown color of its skeleton. Also unique to black coral are the tiny spines that cover the surface of the skeleton, the origin of the nickname little thorn coral. In the Hawaiian language, black coral is called ‘ēkaha kū moana and is the official state gem of Hawaii. Black coral is listed in Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).

 

Thanks AF & Shi!

Took me a bit but I was able to find a similar example held in the collections of the BM (British Museum)...

http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=574419&partId=1&searchText=Henry Christy china&images=true&people=40853&page=1

They are calling it a ladle, Chinese, but don't give a date on when it was made, only an acquisition date of: 1860 - 1869.

 

The bowl appears to be riveted to the handle. Think about how difficult it would be to spread the rivet without cracking the shell bowl.

Tap, tap, crack, whoops, start again.

 

Well, the bowl of that one is like a ladle -- 2" deep and 5" wide approx., so not a spoon.