VTG to Antique buy Brass Sea Shell Shaped Coal Spoon, Nautical Fireplace Tool, Brass Fireplace/Fire Pit/Campfire Spoon, Coal Removal Spoon

An unusual hard to find brass sea shell shaped "coal" spoon.

This was found in an antique shop in Asheville, North Carolina among other fireplace tools.

I was able to find one like it although it had a more ornate handle but the shell shaped "spoon" was quite similar. It dated to the 1890s and is located in the Old Operating Theatre Museum & Herb Garret, London - a museum dedicated to preserving medical artifacts from the Old St. Thomas Hospital in London. Apparently, all the wards within the hospital were heated by coal fires with each room having its own fireplace and chimney.

I don't know the age or history of this unique item but was not to find another like it other buy than the one in the London museum.

When I found it, "coal spoon" didn't come to mind. I thought of it more as an ingenious way to heat/melt something over a fire or as a kind of shallow ladle.

"Coal spoon," however, is more logical.

It's in very nice condition and measures 13.5 inches long (slightly longer than the one found in the London museum) and measures 4 inches wide at the shell end. It's about 1 inch deep. It weighs 13 ounces.