Very rare 1740s Joseph Healy Georgian sterling silver wavy sugar nips/tea tongs

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Very rare 1740s Joseph Healy Georgian sterling silver wavy sugar nips/tea tongs:
$169.99

We are listing these very rare 1740s Georgian sterling silver sugar nips (or more properly tea tongs, as they were called in the 1700s) by the London silversmith Joseph Healy. The tongs have a bullseye hinge (with a decorated and ornate cursive monogram on one side of it), and very unique wavy arms and shafts. The reference book on these tongs, Eighteenth Century Silver Tea Tongs (whose author also has the silverteatongs website), has hundreds of examples of differently shaped tongs, including one with wavy shafts, but no examples with both wavy arms and shafts. The tongs are marked inside one finger hinge with the unusually punched lion passant used only between 1739 and 1755, and the maker\'s mark I*H in an engrailed punch. This mark was registered in 1725 by London silversmith Joseph Healy (see page 104 of Grimwade\'s London Goldsmiths 1697-1837). The tongs are 4.75 inches long and in very good condition. Please view the closeup pictures and judge for yourself (the tongs have not been professionally polished). A truly unique pair of Georgian tea tongs.

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