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 Maker? Pat'd Sept 7, 1869, sterling
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| Author | Topic: Maker? Pat'd Sept 7, 1869, sterling |
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bonniegaia Posts: 48 |
posted 07-14-2008 11:44 AM
  
My grandmother's grandmother Mary Cleora (Stone) Richardson was gifted on 5 May 1870 with a matching butter spreader & spoon (for sugar? jam?) with a fancy scalloped, (gold-washed?) bowl. I don't know where to start with this as there is no maker, only a patent date: The only marks are Sterling and Pat'd Sept 7, 1869. Does anyone recognize the maker? Pattern? Where was this silversmith located and what years was this pattern made? Thank you, IP: Logged |
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dragonflywink Posts: 993 |
posted 07-16-2008 12:58 PM
Keystone, by New York maker Whiting Mfg. Co., most references show it as a pattern that was not produced as a full line, circa 1880 - but the U.S. patent #D3656 was issued 09/07/1869 to designer Charles Osborne, assigned to Whiting. ~Cheryl IP: Logged |
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bonniegaia Posts: 48 |
posted 07-16-2008 02:12 PM
Cheryl, 'Keystone'--an appropriate name! Looks as if 'most references' are a decade late with production date. Now if I could just find out *why* the date 5 May 1870 was chosen. It was not the recipient's birthday. She was age 42 at the time, living with teacher husband and 3 yr old son in Mobile, Alabama in June 1870 census. The giver of the gift was Cleora's nephew Frank Melzar Stone who shows in July 1870 in his parents' household in Winchester, Mass. As Cleora was an accomplished portrait painter, and young Frank and is bride-to-be together gifted matching silver to Cleora shortly *before* the marriage --I have to wonder if the young couple didn't sit for their portraits and in return Frank gifted his aunt, the artist ... all conjecture. -- Bonnie IP: Logged |
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dragonflywink Posts: 993 |
posted 07-16-2008 03:24 PM
Sounds like you might have a reasonable theory there, have seen quite a few sugar shell/master butter presentation sets, sometimes with matching teaspoons. Have very few family heirlooms and none in silver, how wonderful for you to have them, and the research must be so interesting. ~Cheryl IP: Logged |
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bonniegaia Posts: 48 |
posted 07-16-2008 04:33 PM
Cheryl- Thanks for the correct terminology: "sugar shell/master butter presentation set" ! Re not having silver heirlooms - there is this bright side: you must love silver to be on this forum, so you get to *choose* (hopefully now and then) what beautiful things to collect and pass down. If you have family, they will all be grateful for your good eye. --Have a few things monogrammed, just in case Re the research: fascinating. I fell into it by accident. Interesting story but not for here. Certainly don't need heirlooms to do it, and it's more satisfying than a chest full of heirlooms. Most of us don't know where we came from until we research. My GGM (daughter of the Hettie Elster of the I.P.Libbey spoon) grew up thinking she was 'Pennsylvania Dutch.' Turned out the Elster was an escaped Hessian POW during American Revolution who somehow met and married a girl with Mayflower ancestors, not the pious pilgrim kind but the first to be executed (for murder!) in Plymouth Colony and the other was a major figure in a shipwreck that partly inspired Shakespeare's The Tempest. You just never know what fun awaits on your tree... Equally exciting is getting a 'back door' look at history through the lives of *ordinary* people & their daily lives. Many stories to tell, but off topic here. Just PLEASE, never think a lack of shiny heirlooms means a dull past! If you have never tried searching you have a great never-ending puzzle/mystery ahead of you! IP: Logged |
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dragonflywink Posts: 993 |
posted 07-16-2008 04:54 PM
Have played a bit with some research into my heritage, afraid to get too involved - would probably become obsessed! My paternal grandmother's family did a genealogy on her family back to their arrival here (Boston, then on to Portsmouth, RI) in the 1630s, was fortunate to be able, through info from this forum, to see pictures of pieces by one of the related silversmiths (though the family tree was done in the 1970s and the connection needs to be clarified as to the relationship to my direct ancestor). ~Cheryl [This message has been edited by dragonflywink (edited 07-16-2008).] IP: Logged |
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bonniegaia Posts: 48 |
posted 07-17-2008 01:54 PM
Cheryl - Yes, obsession is a possibility! The good news: you can put all the old-time research on the back burner. By the time you are ready to research even more material will be online, which is likely where you will *start.*. I am glad, though, that even at the busiest time of my life, some 35-40 yrs ago, I attempted to gradually find everyone still living who shared the same great-grandparents. This was pre-computer, pre-internet, pre-email! Try to do this if you think one day you would like to research. Contact them all. In my case, the greatest collection of information and old stuff came from someone I'd never met - a lady who never married. Our ancestor-in-common was way back-- my grandfather's grandmother, born 1824! This new-found distant relation was *so* grateful to know someone cared about old things and old times. Over the years I received from her several boxes of wonderful items, including a daguerreotype we never knew existed of my GGGM as a young mother with three of her children, etc! No, no silver... but she did send me my GGGM's utensils! This is a silver forum, or I would post photos. The utensils look very primitive, some kind of matte gray metal with bone handles and a fork with three prongs--murderously sharp! This GGGM was a widow working as a cook for a logging camp in the Sierras. Definitely no sterling silver! My dear informant was long dead when I got around to serious research. I did, though, still have her correspondence in her own handwriting, detailing her memories of times spent in her grandmother's home, our common ancestor. Precious! Amazing what a simple letter can do! Cheryl - if you ever want help or to contact me when you do get to searching, go to Rootsweb.com > WorldConnect project and enter 'bonniegaia' for name of database. As long as I live I will keep up that tree and the email address given there (as a graphic) will be current. Good luck! [This message has been edited by bonniegaia (edited 07-17-2008).] IP: Logged |
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