Old English type ladle with circular bowl and rounded downturned handle with midrib on back and "EMS" engraved in foliate script on front; no shoulders. Swage-formed drop containing a point facing up on back of bowl. Struck once on back of handle "R.Humphreys" in raised script in a conforming surround.
Maker is Richard Humphreys (1749/50-1832); working in Wilmington, DE, 1771-1772, and Philadelphia, PA, beginning in 1772. A highly talented and successful silversmith, Humphreys is perhaps better remembered as a Quaker philanthropist whose bequest of $10,000 (one-tenth of his estate) established Cheyney University (originally named the Institute for Colored Youth) in 1837, making it the first and oldest historically African-American institution for higher learning in the United States.