I have this unusual small ladle, it has a tiny bowl, smaller than most salt spoons and a long handle (14cms), The cross engraved to the terminal might suggest some religious use, it has Dublin hallmarks, does anybody know its purpose?
Thank you for the observation, it is not something I am familiar with. Other than pattens, chalices and pyx boxes, I have not handled any other ecclesiastical silver.
The angle between the handle and the bowl seems to make it difficult to use as an incense spoon.
Could it be a baptismal ladle?
Baptism is a symbolic purification and the amount of water is irrelevant
Regards
Amena
Your ladle is indeed for ecclesiastical use and is properly called a scruple spoon.
During Roman Catholic celebration of the Mass, at the Offertory the celebrant prepares the wine to be offered by decanting into the chalice an appropriate quantity from a cruet of wine. To this added a tiny amount of water. The symbolism lies in the relative quantitie;s the wine representing the extent of the divine, by comparison with insignificant drop of water representing humankind. Historically this little ladle would have measured the tiny drop of water, but this rarely figures nowadays when it is more usual for the celebrant to pour a small quantity directly from a cruet of water into the chalice.
The scruple spoon is still in use and current among the more liturgically educated clergy.
The prayer used at the commingling is taken from the sermon on the Incarnation preached on Christmas Day 440 by Pope St Leo the Great (400-460) and runs thus: Deus, + qui humanae substantiae dignitatem et mirabiliter condidisti, et mirabilius reformasti: da nobis per huius aquae et vini mysterium, eius divinitatis esse consortes, qui humanitatis nostrae fieri dignatus est particeps, Iesus Christus Filius tuus Dominus noster: Qui tecum vivit et regnat in unitate Spiritus Sancti Deus: per omnia saecula saeculorum. Amen.
I must say that even I had never heard of the scruple spoon.
You always learn something.
Ampoules have been used in Italy since very distant times.
A pair of liturgical ampoules is represented in an inlay by Friar Damiano Zambelli from the first half of the 1500s.
I do not know if the scruple spoon has ever been used in Italy.
Best
Amena
