posted 06-19-2008 11:42 PM            

I have a serving spoon which I think is Silver, though it could be silverplate. The name on the back is "Garrett & Son A1" and some sort of a mark in a pear type shape. I can't seem to find anything about this company, or the makers, or if it is silver or plate. Does anyone know anything about the maker? The spoon has a monogram also on the end of the handle.

Thank you

posted 06-21-2008 06:26 AM            

Phillip Garrett worked on his own (mark P. Garrett) from 1801-1828 and then with his son Thomas C. Garrett in Philadelphia from 1828-1835 (mark P. Garrett & Son). I'm particularly interested in finding pieces from that partnership that are solid silver.

Electroplating didn't come to the U.S. until after the end of the father & son partnership, though there was an earlier process of "'close-plating': covering small metal objects with silver foil and borax and heating them red-hot to fuse the metals."

That quote is from Spoons by Gail Belden & Michael Snodin (1976).

On page 20, which covers early silverplating, there is a picture of a silverplated mustard spoon in an upturned fiddle tipt pattern, marked 'P. Garrett & Son' and 'A1' in rectangles (their description; the mark is not pictured). The authors date it as '1858; c. 1840'. Not sure what that means; my guess is that the first date is the earliest date of provenance, and c. 1840 is the estimated date of production.

The younger Garrett worked on his own starting in 1836 (mark T.C. Garrett) and then with partners (T.C. Garrett & Co.), ending sometime in 1860. Items with those marks are all solid silver. In that last phase the company retailed other makers' products, though they may have continued to make their own, too. Mmost of the items I've seen with the later mark are Polhamus pieces.

But, on the other hand, 'Garrett & Son' is listed in the Philadelphia 1860 directory on wev's site as 'silverplater'. So is 'Thomas C. Garrett' at another address.

Confirmation of the business' existence in 1860 is this entry in the finding aid done by D. Albert Soeffing of Winterthur Library's Downs collection of ephemera:

quote:

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Garrett & Son, manufacturers of superior silver-plated ware, Market and Decatur Sts., Philadelphia, 1862. Decorated with picture showing various pieces of silver ware. Stationery printed by Mann, 43 S. 4th St. All bills are addressed to Thos. C. Garrett. (ca. 80 pieces)

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So my theory is that Thomas ran a silverplate production business, Garrett & Son, separate from his silver production-then-retailer business, T.C. Garrett & Co.

I also now have a silverplate spoon, upturned fiddle tipt, marked Garrett & Son A1. Without a 'P.'; unlike yours and the mustard spoon in the Belden book, the marks are not inside rectangles or any other shape.

The question I'm not sure how to answer is when the silverplating business began and ended. Thomas Garrett's nephew Samuel Biddle (later of Bailey, Banks & Biddle) apprenticed with him in 1857 and took over his business at some point after 1860, but was that both the silver and the silverplate enterprises?

posted 06-21-2008 09:13 AM            

Since you have returned to seek ssf help again (first post: posted 10-22-2004 08:07 PM (Meriden Britannia Company Coffee Urn), it would be nice if you would introduce yourself to everyone and tell us why your are asking about this spoon.

posted 06-21-2008 10:16 PM            

My current question that I have posted here a few days ago is due to the throwing away of a spoon that I insisted must be silver, although a friend said it was not, which is why he threw it away. (I cater part time, and he said it was old and ugly) I saved it from the trash and bet him I can find out if it is silver, or silver plate and the approx value, ages, history, etc.

He said I could not, and that if it were indeed silver, it would have the .925 mark. I disagree, as I don't think that this was used ever since silver was made, and believe that to be false. The piece belonged to the family who began the catering in 1962, but brought with them from Michigan which was in their family a while.

To the POSTERS: Thank you for the information on Garrett & Son, but one thing I would like to point out is that there is no first Initial on my piece, and it simply says in a rectangle box, GARRETT & SON then outside that is the A1. I can submit a photo of the piece for further information if needed or requested. I really just need to find out anything I can on the item in question so that I can win the bet, and then, perhaps just display the piece as a trophy of my successful research so he can see it all the time! So, I will keep researching, but does anyone know where there may be images of the GARRETT & SON Patterns? I would love to find a matching image so I can place a pattern name on it.

posted 06-22-2008 02:26 PM            

It would really help if we could see photos of the marks and of the spoon.

This info might be relevant. Found on a trade card for the 1876 Philadelphia Worlds Fair Int Expo Silver Adv Card.

George B. Garrett
Garrett & Son Manufacturers of Sterling Silver Plated Ware

posted 06-22-2008 05:36 PM            

And as I said, I have a silverplate serving spoon marked exactly the same way except that the GARRETT & SON is incised directly, not in a rectangle.

Your piece is almost certainly a silverplated product of GARRETT & SON, a company that was in business at least as early as 1860 (probably earlier) and at least as late as 1876.

posted 06-22-2008 11:40 PM            

Any information on when the George Garrettt 'Garrett & Son' company came into existence? Or its location?

posted 06-23-2008 12:13 AM            

quote:

---

What are your thoughts, then, on the stationery order in the Winterthur ephemera collection?

---

posted 06-23-2008 02:30 PM            

So: Silverplated items marked 'Garrett & Son' were made by the company associated with George B. Garrett. Kahfree has an example with the maker's mark in a rectangle punch; I have an example with the words incised directly.

That brings me back to the silverplated mustard spoon marked 'P. Garrett & Son' in the Belden & Snodin book. (The spoon is in the Winterthur collection, I think.) How should their date information -- "1858; c. 1840" be interpreted? I took it to mean that the documented provenance of the spoon went back to 1858, and that the authors' estimate of production date was c.1840.

I was very shocked to see an item with that mark

1. silverplated, at a time when electroplating had not come in, and certainly hadn't come in to firms as small as I imagined the Philip Garrett & Thomas Garrett shop to be.
   
2. dated after the end of the father-son partnership.

1. it could have been produced by the older foil-wrapping method of plating,
   
2. it's quite possible that the 'P. Garrett & Son' punch might have been used by Thomas Garrett for a little time after that business ended, and
   
3. the Belden-Snodin 'c.1840' is an estimate, and presumably could be stretched back to 1835.

posted 06-24-2008 01:39 AM            

Have you, wev, or has anyone, particularly mid-Atlantic types, ever seen silver with a mark 'P. Garrett & Son'? I'm wondering whether, given that they weren't working together all that long, each of the two didn't just each use his own mark on his own pieces, and that there never was a maker's mark for that partnership.

posted 06-24-2008 02:02 AM            

Thank you so much for all the information. Enclosed are 3 photos of my spoon that I have. Its stained and beat up a bit, but still interesting I suppose.

Doing my research, I found out that it resembles the Fiddle Pattern and it is also monogrammed with an E.T. or an E. J. Not sure what the second letter is.

The way I understand some of the posts is that not many pieces are found from the Garrett & Son collections? Since there seems to be very little on the makers, I wounder if a lot of their items got lost, destroyed or they just did not have a very big production run.

Let me know what you think of the images I uploaded. Oh, and I guess I was wrong about the name being in a rectangle, as my eyes are not as good as the camera and I thought it looked that way. Sorry if this caused confusion.

Thank you!
Kelly