British Pathe

Pinto Collection of Wooden Bygones, Northwood, Middlesex.

C/U of a man's hands stirring a cup of tea and placing the spoon on the saucer; pulling back for M/S of Edward Pinto sitting next to his wife, Eva, and examining a spoon while Eva makes notes. C/Us of a carved wooden spoon with three...

Pinto Collection of Wooden Bygones, Northwood, Middlesex.

C/U of a man's hands stirring a cup of tea and placing the spoon on the saucer; pulling back for M/S of Edward Pinto sitting next to his wife, Eva, and examining a spoon while Eva makes notes. C/Us of a carved wooden spoon with three hearts carved in tip of the handle as commentator talks of the history of Welsh love spoons.

Edward selects another spoon from the many examples on the table before them; C/U of this 18th century spoon with a window-type panel that would have originally carried initials or an inscription. C/U as Eva makes notes; C/U of another spoon made from beechwood, with heart shapes carved from the handle and two commas, which commentator informs us were ancient symbols of nostrils, through which the soul escaped at death, "So the message here was probably 'I am yours, heart and soul, in life and death'". C/U of another spoon, this one has twin bowls.

Eva turns the pages of a reference book showing pictures of various love spoons. M/S and C/U of Edward looking at two wooden chained spoons; the whole thing was carved from a single block of sycamore 3 ft long. C/Us of a bizarre Charles I, carved basting stick or spoon of pine; the words carved along the side say it is from Edward Webster to his host, to baste his wife with for not basting his roast - well, really!

C/U of a large carved wooden panel with a lion and unicorn carved at the top and numerous spoons hanging down the side; tilt down to show the length of it which has many bird shapes and faces in profile cut out of it; C/U of a carved bird and other shapes in the panel. Commentator tells us that a number of spoons sprouting from one stem indicated a desire for a large family.

Note: There is no print for this issue. There are notes on the spoons seen plus correspondence from the Pintos and general information about their collection on file.