posted 06-18-2014 10:00 AM            

A friend gave us a small collection of souvenir demi spoons they inherited.

If members would like to see the demi souvenir spoons and to discuss them I will photograph and post some. Here is one:

posted 06-19-2014 10:49 AM            

I like these very much. I only have a couple souvenir spoons and I have always thought about making a collection one day, but I have so many interests that I have not gotten around to it. A couple of thoughts about the very nice ones you have posted are:

Number 1. This seems to be a generic indian handle spoon with the Delaware Water Gap bowl added. The reason I think that the handle is a generic design is the indian is wearing a Sioux (or possibly other plains tribe) war bonnet. The indian tribe that lived around Delaware and New Jersey was the Lenni-Lenape. In particular around the Water Gap it was the wolf clan of the Unami division of the tribe. The Lenni-Lenapi did not wear war bonnets.

Spoon number 2. This is another really nice one. The bowl marking "AK-SAR-BEN" is the word Nebraska spelled backwards. I think there was a fraternal order of some kind back then with this name. Also, I think the name was used at some fairs and such.

Spoon number 4. The hand engraved bowl is hard to decipher since the letters are so stylized, but they spell Wisconsin. The handle goes really well with this since it is a badger dressed up in clothes. Wisconsin has long been associated with badgers because in the 1800s miners were digging tunnels into hillsides searching for lead, reminding people of the badgers that are found around there.

Thanks again for sharing these great spoons.

posted 06-19-2014 02:00 PM            

Thanks so much for the interesting observations.

Number 1. I am impressed with your knowledge about head dresses and the indian nations. Perhaps you also know about the grammar re: indian verses Indian?

Spoon number 2. I knew "AK-SAR-BEN" is the word Nebraska only its spelled backwards. There is the Knights of Ak-Sar-Ben:

quote:

---

HISTORY

In 1895, Omaha was the home of the Nebraska State Fair. But the State Fair Board, angry because Omaha businessmen failed to provide suitable evening entertainment for families attending the fair, laid down an ultimatum: "Provide entertainment other than saloons, gambling houses and honkeytonks for the 1895 fair or lose it to a competitively alert Lincoln."

First, financial needs were met by Omaha businessmen to provide the needed improvements for the city and the State Fairgrounds.

Then, on the evening of March 28, 1895, a meeting was called with 60 of the most prominent businessmen of Omaha in attendance. At this meeting, the 12 men who formed the Executive Committee of the Omaha Business Men's Association (an organization still in existence) and who had taken charge of the festivities of Fair Week presented an ambitious plan for securing all floats which had appeared in February's New Orleans Mardi Gras Parade for the Omaha fair.

These 12 men became the original members of the Board of Governors of the Knights of Ak-Sar-Ben. Their journey to New Orleans to obtain the Mardi Gras floats brought them into contact with the Rex, Proteus and Comus Society of the Crescent City (the civic group which organized the Mardi Gras festivities). The Omahans were convinced that a permanent organization such as the Rex, Proteus and Comus Society was just what Omaha needed to add zest to its progressive outlook.

On the train ride back from New Orleans, the Omahans named their new organization. "Why not reverse the name of our beloved state, since everything seems to be going backwards these days?" Dudley Smith suggested. Another member suggested that since this group had saved the fair for the city, the organization should be called the "Knights of Ak-Sar-Ben." Thus, Ak-Sar-Ben was born.

.....

---

Spoon number 4. I had not realized that the hand engraving in the bowl spells Wisconsin. Nor did I know about the Wisconsin/badgers association.

posted 06-19-2014 04:11 PM            

No. 2 is one I've seen several times before, but the maker (if I knew it) isn't coming to mind - no marks?

The No. 3 spoon, with the 1901 dating of the Buffalo world's fair, is probably the oldest of the group, made by Barstow & Williams of Providence, RI (their trademark is shown upside-down here).

The No. 4 Paye & Baker spoon depicts an anthropomorphic bear, have seen a few before, by different makers - always assumed they were based on Eaton's 'Roosevelt Bears' series of children's stories, if so, should date no earlier than 1905. The engraving indicates it was a souvenir of Siasconset, MA.

The No. 5 Chas. M. Robbins spoon shows the Cog Rail station at the summit of Pike's Peak, the tower was built around 1900, but the style of the spoon would be more typical of 1910s or later.

No. 6, by H.H. Tammen of Denver, CO, should date no earlier than 1908, when the Auditorium was dedicated. The Rocky Mountain Columbine depicted is Colorado's state flower.

Not where I can check any references at the moment, but can look later...

~Cheryl

posted 06-20-2014 10:49 AM            

The number 2 spoon is just marked sterling.

Number 3: Barstow & Williams mark right side up:

Number 4: Eaton's 'Roosevelt Bears' is something I was not familiar with. It got me to look around and I found:

See: Retrospective: Seymour Eaton's 'The Roosevelt Bears']

Number 6: H. H. Tammen was another company I wasn't familiar with. Now, thanks to you, I went looking:

H.H. Tammen (1856-1924)

A maker of souvenirs in the west, based in Denver. They specialized in rodeo, National Park and western items. Harry Heye Tammen was born in Baltimore, Maryland on March 6, 1856, the son of a German immigrant pharmacist. He attended Knapps Academy in Baltimore, then worked in Philadelphia before moving to Denver in 1880. With his partner Charles A. Stuart he worked as a Denver bartender in 1880, and in 1881 they established the firm of H.H. Tammen & Co. (aka H.H. Tammen Curio Co.) in Denver, Colorado. The company focused on creating souvenir mineralogical curiosities of Colorado, but also sold photography (including William Henry Jackson), silver souvenir spoons, and the like. In 1895, Tammen became a co-editor of the Denver Post, and thus even more wealthy than he already had become. He was apparently behind the controversial decision of Buffalo Bill’s family, to bury him in Denver instead of his hometown of Cody, Wyoming. The H.H. Tammen Curio Co. was in business until 1953, and possibly as late as 1962.