These forks appear to have once been the property of either Admiral Phillip Parker King, or his son Philip Gidley King (Jnr.) This piece of silverware is part of a donation which contains no complete set of tableware and covers nearly 100 years suggesting they were owned by a number of different members of the King family.

The early tableware exhibits the more restrained neo-classical and regency styles while the later is characterised by the more curved forms and elaborate design of the rococo-revival period.

Geoff Barker, Curatorial, December 2009

References
'King, Phillip Parker (1791 - 1856)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 2, Melbourne University Press, 1967

This object came to the museum in 1963 as a part of a collection of objects donated by relatives of Governor Philip Gidley King and Rear-Admiral P. P. King. The other objects include an assortment of cutlery and tableware, some navigational instruments and a hankerchief produced between the 1750s and the 1850s.

Forks [3], Stirling silver, perhaps owned by Phillip Parker King, King family donation, maker unknown, London, England, 1809

Made: 1809

H7237

1809