Posts: 1970
Registered: Nov 2004

posted 06-23-2014 09:52 PM            

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I bought a handsomely engraved pair of coin silver tongs marked G. Beatty. Any idea who that is? He's not in Belden.

I'm especially interested in good guesses about the date of these tongs. The engraving is very similar to engraving on several hair combs I have that I've always imagined--without much evidence--might be from the 1830s-40s. The combs have the same sorts of horns of plenty, pears, flower baskets, and sort of dotted-line and dashed-line engraving techniques. I would post some comb photos, but I seem to have run out of room in my SMP photo gallery. (Maybe I'll use photobucket for the combs, but I know Scott disapproves.)

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posted 06-23-2014 10:13 PM            

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Polly I have done a few things to provide you more space.

First I deleted the images that the system had resized resized to 640 dpi.

Second, I upped your storage allocation.

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posted 06-23-2014 10:23 PM            

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Many thanks, Scott!

I guess I should size the files correctly myself instead of leaving it to the system to resize them. Here are three combs for comparison.

Scott, if I run out of storage space down the line and delete these photos so I can upload new ones, will that leave holes in the threads?

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posted 06-23-2014 10:28 PM            

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Not if I am doing my job.

Usually, after a few days I capture the images ... this way if something happens they can be restored.

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posted 06-24-2014 12:31 PM            

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The engraver on your tongs really went all out in creating an attractive flower arrangement. Nice find.

The eagle with the shield on its breast is called the Philadelphia Eagle and is given c1825-c1841 by McGrew and late 1820s through the 1840s and possibly into the 1850s by Hollan. Neither McGrew nor Hollan were able to clearly identify who this mark belonged to; but it has been seen on almost 50 silver retailers’ wares. Whoever was the manufacturer must have been large to have such a customer list. Hollan speculates that R. and W. Wilson may have been the owner of this mark as they were business during this time and they were certainly large enough to supply all these retailers.
Hollan attributes G. Beatty to a George Beatty from Harrisburg, Pa. (w1808-1850)
The list of retailers given by McGrew and Hollan are mostly from Philadelphia, however quite a few southern retailers sold silver with this mark.

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posted 06-24-2014 02:02 PM            

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James Biser Whisker in his book “Pennsylvania Silversmiths, Goldsmiths and Pewterers, 1684-1900 has a short paragraph on George Beatty (1781-1862). Mr. Beatty served in the War of 1812 as a sergeant in Captain Thomas Walker’s volunteer militia. He served as a Dauphin county auditor and burgess of Harrisburg. He had an advertisement in the 17 November 1812 Harrisburg Pennsylvania Republican asking that all persons indebted to him to make immediate payment. In the same ad he noted that sword mounting was done on the shortest notice and to apply at his residence on Second Street, Harrisburg. This must have been an interesting time.

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posted 06-25-2014 01:47 AM            

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Thank you, ahwt. That's very interesting!

So was George Beatty a retailer of silver made by the mysterious Philadelphia Eagle Guy? Was Mr. Beatty a silversmith who also sometimes sold items made by Mr. Eagle Guy? I assume you're not suggesting that Mr. Beatty and Mr. Eagle Guy are the same person, right?

Do you think this style of engraving was typical of Pennsylvania (perhaps even Philadelphia) at the time, or was it more widespread? And do you think the time was c. 1830s-40s, as I guessed about the combs?

I'm impressed at how many early American silversmiths' biographies include military service. I wonder if it's just that many men served back then, or if something about being a silversmith made a man more likely to go to war. Maybe it's just that I particularly notice the veterans, so I think there were more of them than there really were.

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posted 06-25-2014 08:36 AM            

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Below is some more information about George Beatty:
“BEATTY, GEORGE, youngest son of Capt. James Beatty, was born January 4, 1781, at Ballykeel-Ednagonnel, county of Down, Ireland. He received a good early education in the Latin school of John Downey, and learned watch and clock-making with his brother-in-law, Samuel Hill, whose clocks are more or less celebrated to this day. In 1808 Mr. Beatty established himself in business, which he continued uninterruptedly for upwards of forty years. He was an ingenious mechanician and constructed several clocks of peculiar and rare invention. In 1814 he was orderly sergeant of Capt. Thomas Walker's company, the Harrisburg Volunteers, which marched to the defense of the city of Baltimore. Mr. Beatty in early life took a prominent part in local affairs, and, as a consequence, was frequently solicited to become a candidate for office, but he almost invariably declined. He, nevertheless, served a term as director of the poor, and also as county auditor. He was elected burgess of the borough on three several occasions and was a member of the town council several years, and, while serving in the latter capacity was one of the prime movers in the effort to supply the borough with water. Had his suggestions, however, been carried out, the water-works and reservoir would have been located above the present city limits. Mr. Beatty retired from a successful business life about 1850. He died at Harrisburg on the 10th of March, 1862, aged eighty-one years, and is interred in the Harrisburg cemetery. He was an active, enterprising and upright Christian gentleman. Mr. Beatty was thrice married: married, first, May 18, 1815, by Rev. George Lochman, D. D., Eliza White, daughter of Williaim White, born January 20, 1797; died September 10, 1817.
Mr. Beatty, married, secondly, November 22, 1820, by Rev. George Lochman, D. D., Sarah Smith Shrom, daughter of Casper Shrom and Catharine Van Gundy, born January, 15, 1796, at York, Pa; died August 25, 1828.
Mr. Beatty married, thirdly, September 21, 1830, by Rev. Eliphalet Reed. Catharine Shrom, born December 26, 1807, at York, Pa.; died August 11,1891, at Harrisburg, Pa.”

I would guess that your tongs were made in Philadelphia and also engraved there. His advertisement in the Harrisburg Pennsylvania Republican did state that he was in the silversmithing business, but no mention is made of engraving. The Eagle on the tongs clearly indicates that the tongs were made in Philadelphia. I would date your tongs in the 1840s, but that is just a guess. Philadelphia silver has always been a favorite of mine, but I suspect that by the 1840s there were less regional differences in the north east silver business and your engraving style was popular in many areas.

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posted 06-25-2014 03:08 PM            

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Thank you again, awht.

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posted 08-25-2014 04:37 PM            

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As an avid collector of tongs I find these to be an exquisite find as so many early American tongs are plain. The engraving is really first class and it doesn't surprise me that he was from Ireland and it makes me wonder if he served his apprenticeship there before emigrating to the US. I wonder if the connection can be made or if there is documentation of when the family arrived here.
Roger

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