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Cast Sugar Tongs

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Author	Topic: Cast Sugar Tongs
argentum1 Posts: 602 Registered: Apr 2004	posted 01-02-2008 10:20 AM A new question for the New Year. Cast silver sugar tongs are scarce in English silver but appear with some degree of regularity. Most have some damage due to their construction as cast metals are inherently brittle. Now for my question: Are American Coin Silver sugar tongs seen as being as common as their sheet silver partners? Are they relatively uncommon? I ask as I have seen very few in the years I have been collecting. Little information about cast tongs exists, at least as far as I have been able to find. The photos are of a pair I acquired this past year. And once again I am most appreciative of any information. Thanks to all. I forgot - The two top photos show the inside and outside of the tongs with the edge of the scarf joint showing as a line. IP: Logged
DB Posts: 252 Registered: May 2006	posted 01-02-2008 12:50 PM Here is a selection of English cast sugar tongs - i.e. bow and grips are cast, this type also exists in American tongs, you will find pictures of them in the various museums catalogues, Winterthur, etc. they are considerably rarer than English ones. If you are interested in discussing cast sugartongs, there is a website *CAST SUGAR TONGS* [castsugartongs.co.uk - link gone from the Internet] and of course Dr. Shlosberg with his Teatongs-site. Can't think of a study which only concentrated on American sugartongs, long time ago ( 10 years maybe) I have written a two part article about English and American sugartongs in Silver Magazine. IP: Logged
ahwt Posts: 2334 Registered: Mar 2003	posted 01-02-2008 10:14 PM Another web site Silver sugar tongs shows several interesting tongs including some cast tongs. Pierced tongs shows one that I purchased hoping that it was American, but now resigned to the fact that it is most likely Irish. I fell in love with the hearts and the engraving and now I really do not care where it was make or who make it. It is not that I am averse to buy Irish silver as it is without a doubt among the best designed and made. It is simply that I would normally leave it to those that had closer ties to Ireland. For inherent interest, witness the tongs most likely made by Phillip Syng, Jr. also shown at the above site. They are attractive as most cast tongs, but really not nearly as out of the ordinary as the Irish tongs. They are marked at the center of bend of the tongs. The only other cast tongs that I have are marked as shown below. The first letter in the mark is D, but the second in not clear. The second letter may be a C or an O. They are heavier that normal and for that fact alone are most likely from somewhere in the United Kingdom. I brought them again thinking that they may be from the U.S., but no U.S. maker stands out. It seems to me that the market tends to discount cast tongs from other tongs from around the same time period and I think primarily does so as the bright cut tongs tend to be more attractive and interesting. Unless the engraving or maker is of special interest I think I prefer the other styles. IP: Logged

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