posted 06-12-2009 12:01 AM            

Hello,

I am new to this forum and I hope you can help.

I have read with interest the discussion of Michie Bros. and I too am interested in information about the company and my pattern in particular.

I have a set of 12 spoons that belonged to my Grandmother and the are simply marked STERLING and then MICHIE. (There is a period after the word Michie.) There are no other marks or hallmarks at all except a monogram on the front.

I have included some pictures and hope that someone can identify the pattern and maybe even the monogram. I think the monogram is an Old English F but am not sure.

Any additional information would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you in advance,

Yosemite

posted 06-12-2009 02:42 AM            

I have learned more about the Michie brothers since my last posting on the topic, and it will be a pleasure to pass this information on to you once the preliminaries are out of the way.

posted 06-12-2009 06:27 AM            

As bascall suggests, Please give the Guidelines another read.

Even if your Topic and reasons for asking are in within our Guidelines, the self promotion/business parts of your Post, User Name, Profile have been edited. Your two part user name has been changed to one part with the same password.

posted 06-12-2009 10:06 AM            

My thanks to both bascall and Scott. First, let me apologize for not following the guidelines more closely.

A little about me; My wife and I retired to California about 10 years ago after many years in the antiques and collectible business and have a wonderful home in the Sierra Foothills about 40 miles from Yosemite National Park.

In December of this past year my wife passed away after a four year battle with cancer. Shortly before her death we made a trip to the Boston area to clean out my Grandmother's (who passed in 1977)and my elderly Aunt's estate. My Aunt is currently in a Nursing Home.

We brought back a number of family items including jewelry, photographs and a large quantity of Sterling Silver in various patterns.

Some of it I remember from when I was a child and it will remain in my family however knowing what it is will be helpful in that I can put a note with it so my son doesn't have to try and identify it when I pass on.

There will indeed be some that I will sell either here on this site, in the sell section or perhaps my website. I have shied away from eBay over the last couple of years due to my wife's health and their ever changing rules.

So in short my main purpose for joining this forum is for identifying what I have and hopefully I may even be able to work with someone on the want board to help fill in something they may need.

I hope I have answered some of the questions and if you need more information I will be happy to provide it.

Thank you,

posted 06-12-2009 11:15 AM            

Thank you for introduction and summary.

I can't tell you a thing about your pattern unfortunately. It is very attractive engraving though. If it has a name someone will probably be able to help you with that.

Concerning the Mitchie Bros here's what I've learned so far: The family immigrated to the United States from Scotland in 1843.
They may have began life in this country in Ohio because the first child born over here was born in 1845 in Ohio. They appear in the 1850 U S Federal Census for Newport, Kentucky with the father William working as a machinist. After that census all or part of the family were in Cincinnati into the twentieth century.

William appeared in the 1853 William's Cincinnati Directory as a jeweler at the same address as the jeweler Henry Bliss and coincidently his son who was born in 1855 was named Henry Bliss Michie.

William Sr, William Jr and another son James Cary all appear in the 1861 and 1862 William's Cincinnati Directories as watchmakers.

As for the Michie Bros partners, they were William Jr and Henry Bliss Michie. They were jewelry manufacturers and had their own shop. Their business name was still evident in 1918 and may have continued beyond that year.

posted 06-12-2009 11:33 AM            

Thank you for your kind words and the information you provided on the Michie Bros.

It appears that the amount of information available on Michie is very limited at best as I was only able to find a listing in an 1889 Cincinnati,OH telephone directory which listed them as Michie Bros.. Jewelers 178 West Fourth Street Cincinnati, OH.

That is all I could find. Perhaps someone else can help with the pattern name???? Do you think it is possible that since there are no hallmarks that Michie Bros. actually made the pieces themselves?

What is your best guess as to the monogram? If indeed it is an F then I know exactly where in the family it came from.

Thank you again,

posted 06-12-2009 11:41 AM            

Perhaps someone else may be able to shed some more light on this mystery.

Regards,

posted 06-12-2009 02:39 PM            

Any guesses on the monogram?

posted 06-12-2009 06:19 PM            

I just wanted to take a moment to thank all of you for your wonderful help. Kimo, I do appreciate the information about the "Gift" sets. I hadn't thought about that and just assumed that this was part of a larger set.

This forum has been a wonderful experience thus far and I hope to continue to be a part of it.

As I mentioned above I have a large quantity of Sterling that I need to go through and my wife and I also prided ourselves on doing as much research as possible on our own. However, sometimes you just run into a wall as was the case with this set. I would have never known that it was J S & Co. as it is not marked that nor does it have hallmarks indicating that. If not for the help of you fine people I would be lost.

I am sure that even though I have a lot of research yet to do on the other pieces that there undoubtedly will be some that I will have to come back and ask about.

I certainly do appreciate the help, time and effort you have put in.

Regards,

posted 06-12-2009 11:32 PM            

This does make it difficult to date the spoons as the practice continued for as long as there were jewelers' apprentices.

That does look like an F.

posted 06-12-2009 11:40 PM            

Is it possible that a jewelers' apprentice would copy an existing design to practice his craft? Could that explain why there is no indication of the J S & Co and only says Sterling and Michie?

Thanks for confirming my thoughts on the monogram.

And thank you for the condolences.

Regards,

posted 06-14-2009 10:30 PM            

I think you are right. That's what I believe it is and Dale above thinks so as well so I think we have it!