Spoon manufacture was a rarity in Sheffield in the late eighteenth century (it was not a category in the directory of 1787).   William Darby was a pioneer.  He was involved as partner (with several others) in John Love & Co, a silver plate firm, which registered a silver mark in 1783 from Scotland Street.   In 1785, Darby registered a mark as a plate worker in Pea Croft.  He sent quantities of spoons for assay, which had been made by his patented die-stamping process.   Only a few examples of his spoons – produced between 1785 and 1786 and stamped ‘WD PATENT’ – have survived.   Presumably, the technology was not a success.  Moore (1999)¹ has suggested that the softness of machine-stamped silver spoons counted unfavourably against those that were stamped and then raised by hammering.  In 1788, Darby was bankrupt.  His subsequent career has not been traced.

^1. Moore, Simon, Cutlery for the Table: A History of British Table and Pocket Cutlery (Sheffield, 1999)