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 SMP Silver Salon Forums
 American Silver before sterling
 Drop The Drop
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nihontochicken Posts: 289 |
posted 02-03-2005 11:59 PM
  
My major interest in silverware is the evolution of styles. In this vein, I think I may have brought this particular question up eons ago, but without much resolution. So I thought I might try again. My basic question is, "When (or over what period) did flatware makers 'drop the drop'?" I am mainly interested in the Brit and American evolution. Through the progression from the trefid to the dognose to the Hanoverian to the Old English and finally to the fiddle pattern, the drop morphed from a long rat tail, to a stub tail with variants, and finally disappeared, with the stem joining the bowl underside smoothly with no demarcation. I am interested in opinions as to when and where this last transition began and when it was essentially completed. What sparks my interest again is a recently acquired Bailey and Kitchen soup ladle ("yummy!" minty for which I paid "gag! blech!" too much, but it did have my initials engraved on it, contemporary with manufacture, for which I paid the requisite too dear premium, which in turn will, of course, vanish in a puff of smoke upon my demise or permanent disability, but ego precedes all, don't we know?). Bailey & Kitchen is listed as starting in 1833, by which time I suspect most American makers had already "dropped the drop" (seems it may have continued on longer in Brit work). But this example has a very wide (early throwback?) round drop that only yields to modernization in that it is as much engraved as it is chased/embossed (typically American trait, witness the very distinct engraved "V" shaped drops of the 1790s). My gut feeling is that in America, the drop started disappearing in roughly 1815 to 1820 or so, and was pretty much gone by about 1835 or thereabouts. But this is just from looking at undocumented examples and mentally dating other attributes, not from any well documented cases. So how far out to lunch am I? Opinions? Books??? IP: Logged |
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asheland Posts: 935 |
posted 02-04-2005 06:39 AM
I would think form my experience, that American coin lost the drop around 1810-20, While the British seemed to keep it into the 1850's. asheland IP: Logged |
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mdhavey Posts: 164 |
posted 02-09-2005 01:40 PM
Belden in "Marks of American Silversmiths in the Ineson Bissell Collection" shows a sauce ladle with a decorative shell drop which would have been made in the mid 19th century, and a salt spoon from ca. 1833 with a decorative drop, but for the most part suggests that the drop was common in the 18th century but faded away early in the 19th. Evidently some overtly decorative drops continued on. Interestingly, Luddington says that early Sheffield plate spoons were made in two parts, the bowls and handled made and plated then soldered together (so the drop in this case would be functional). IP: Logged |
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agleopar Posts: 850 |
posted 02-09-2005 08:01 PM
My understanding of the function of the drop or any thickening devise (rat tail etc.) at the juncture of the handle and bowl on flatware is to add needed strength at the weakest point. One sees spoons, usually coin with no drop, where that is the spot they usually tear. So it is first for strength, and second for decoration. Shefield plate has the distinction of being harder to make than sterling because of the chalenges of working with fused silver, copper, silver. Since the bowl of a spoon and the handle are of different thicknesses and you could not forge Sheffield plate the only solution was to solder them together. Ironically, in this case the drop helps give an area of stability and surface while soldering, which makes that job a little easier. P.S. sorry I have no opinion on dates dropping the drop, personally I really like them so I wish they hadn't... [This message has been edited by agleopar (edited 02-09-2005).] IP: Logged |
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nihontochicken Posts: 289 |
posted 02-09-2005 09:05 PM
Thanks to all who have responded so far. What spun me up again on this is a Bailey & Kitchen soup ladle with wide, circular drop I acquired recently, mentioned above in my first post. It cannot pre-date 1832 (per Rainwater, or 1833 as mentioned above per Ensko). OTOH, I have another soup ladle, smooth without any demarcated drop, marked "HUTTON" (Isaac), who began working in 1790 (Ensko) and who died at about age 87 years in 1855. I don't have his last working date, but it was likely well into the 19th century. However, this ladle is a shoulderless fiddle pattern, aka Scottish oar pattern, which in America seems to have been a somewhat rare transitional pattern from old English to fiddle pattern, very limited in time from about 1800 to about 1810 (my guesstimation, unrelated to, but coincident in time with, the coffin end finial shape). So I believe these two ladles may be generally non-representative pieces at the extreme ends of the evolution of "dropping the drop", the Hutton piece ahead of its time, the B&K piece behind. JMHO, maybe there isn't anything definitive out there, only anecdotal experience. Anyway, thanks again to those who responded. IP: Logged |
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mdhavey Posts: 164 |
posted 02-10-2005 05:34 PM
More information regarding drops and one piece vs. two piece spoons appeared in an earlier post: http://www.smpub.com/ubb/Forum19/HTML/000473.html IP: Logged |
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