posted 12-15-2004 04:32 PM            

Here are some items that I can not recall ever seeing in coin silver; full sized dinner knives and a carving set. The pieces pictured came as a lot with 12 luncheon knives with silver blades, bearing the trademark of Albert Coles. All of the pieces have the same monogram, "Curtis", and were likely purchased at the same time. The pattern is essentially identical to John Polhamus' LOUIS XIV, but several manufacturers produced very similar ones.

The dinner knives are 10 3/4 inches long. The blades are silverplated carbon steel, unlike the silver blades on the luncheon set.

The carving set has unplated carbon steel functional ends. The handles are an elongated version of those on the dinner knives, with a sort of "double joint". The blade of the knife is marked "PRATT, ROPES & Co. / AMERICAN CUTLERY". This firm was in business from at least the early 1840's to the 1870's in Meriden, CT.

Anyway, I thought others might like to see these rare survivors.

Brent

posted 12-16-2004 04:21 PM            

Sorry for the picture quality; I will try to post some more shortly.

The dinner knife handles are significantly larger than the luncheons. Unfortunately, I sold the luncheons and do not have measurements. I am sure that the knife blades are original, as I had them reset into the handles. A few were quite loose and/or off-center, as if the original producer had some trouble getting them right. The blades were polished when reset, so they look too shiny now; my mistake.

It is interesting to note that there was no visible seam between the silver blade and the handle on the luncheon knives, but there is a clear joint on these pieces. I'm not sure how the "all-silver" knives were manufactured.

The more I think about it, the more I am convinced that this set represents a custom order, at a time when most dinner cutlery had ivory or wooden handles.

I agree, this is a very early set of silver handle knives!