posted 05-03-2002 09:50 AM            

Here is the mark as found on some George Sharp nut picks.

And here is the George Sharp pseudo mark:

posted 05-03-2002 04:31 PM            

To make matters more confusing, there was also a George Sharpe, a retailer, I believe, who worked at about the same time.

posted 05-03-2002 09:10 PM            

However, there is a design patent no. 1880 dated January 5, 1864 for George Sharp. The patent shows a drawing for an "ornamental design for the ends of handles of spoons, etc."

The description reads, in part: "The nature of my invention or production consists in finishing the extreme outer ends of the shank handles of spoons, ladles, scoops, shovels, knives, forks, crumb scrapers, call bells, nut picks, and such other articles of table use as require shank handles, each in the ornamental globular form herein described and shown. The drawing represents a chicken salad spoon having my ornamental design - the ball or sphere A applied thereto. The ball A, is, in this instance, attached to the end of the handle, a1, by means of a neck piece a2, consisting of a cavetto scotia, and fillets: and has attached to its opposite side a very much smaller ball a3. The surface of the ball or sphere A, is also represented in the drawing as being smooth or even, but, it is my intention to make the surface either plain or ornate, as may be preferred."

The drawing of the shank is the same as on the nut pick shown above.

posted 05-12-2002 11:25 PM            

Ingredients
Remains of cold roast or boiled chicken
2 lettuces
a little endive
1 cucumber
a few slices of boiled beetroot
salad dressing

posted 07-12-2008 01:10 AM            

quote:

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To make matters more confusing, there was also a George Sharpe, a retailer, I believe, who worked at about the same time.

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A possible match for this gentlemen appears in the 1870 U S Federal Census for Atlanta, Georgia.

However, given the incidents recounted in the October 20, 1902 Atlanta Constitution about George Sharpe's behaviour in the 1870's and '80's as a Whitehall Street jeweler, there's is little that is believeable about the man except that he appears to have been a confidence man.

His ploy, so the paper records, was to borrow money using his stock as collateral and little by little over the course of several years he would borrow his collateral back under the pretense of having opportunities to make substantial sales until finally he was able to get his lenders to give him all of his stock back without ever paying off his loans, and at that point he "disappeared."

posted 07-16-2008 09:36 AM            

Boultinghouse notes that Sharp brought T. R. J. Ayres business and advertised thereafter that he was the successor to Mr. Ayres. When Mr. Ayres returned to Louisville in 1860-61 he was upset that Sharp was posing as his successor. The two publicly aired their disagreements in the Kentucky Tribune of March 1, 1861. It does seem that trouble followed George Sharp, Jr.

I understand that a new book is in the works for Kentucky and that the searching digitized newspapers databases has made research in this area much faster. Does anyone know who offers these databases and the cost to access them?