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| Author | Topic: Anyone know Hobbs? |
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jag Posts: 24 |
posted 06-20-2011 11:51 PM
  
[26-2171] Here's a spoon I can't find any info on. The name is W.E.Hobbs. The stamp is a different style than most of the other block-stamps I have. Can anyone place the name, or the style, or the probable date of this type of stamp? Thanks again! IP: Logged |
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bascall Posts: 1629 |
posted 06-21-2011 12:35 AM
There was a William E Hobbs who was born in Brookfield Massachusetts in 1839 and who was a jeweler. Most of his career appears to have been spent in North Brookfield. Anyway, he looks like a good prospect for at least the retailer of your spoon. IP: Logged |
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Kimo Posts: 1627 |
posted 06-21-2011 05:27 PM
As Bascall suggests, this may very well be the retailer's mark rather than the maker. This was a fairly common practice for retail sellers to buy quantities of unmarked flatware from larger manufacturers or wholesalers or importers and apply their store name which made for good advertising. IP: Logged |
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jag Posts: 24 |
posted 06-21-2011 05:59 PM
Thanks so much for the replies. They bring up two questions: 1. During what time period were jewelers stamping their marks on other maker's wares? Did this start in the mid-1800's or some other date, or was it always done? 2. Is this an "Old English" style spoon (it is hard to see, but it has the tipped end on the back)? I was hoping the date might be earlier because of the style - although the stamp didn't look very old to me. But if this is "Old English", is it just that this style was popular and still being made well into the mid-1800's? 3. If William E Hobbs born in Brookfield Massachusetts in 1839 is the retailer, this would make it 1860's or newer. Is the unusual (to me) type of maker/retailer stamp (very thin without a rectangle) help to verify anything about its age or retailer? In other word was this type of stamp used more by retailers than makers, or was it used only later in the 1800's? IP: Logged |
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wev Moderator Posts: 4121 |
posted 06-21-2011 06:32 PM
1. Occasionally in the 18th, with regularity in the 19th and 20th century. 2. Late 19th c style spoon, the last development of the plain style, relegated to a low market alternative against the pricier patterned wares. 3. Hobbs was still in business in 1900 and it could well date from that time. Short of a verifiable providence, it would be impossible to say when it was made with more accuracy than "during his career." IP: Logged |
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bascall Posts: 1629 |
posted 06-21-2011 07:35 PM
Hobbs still listed as a jeweler with a jewelry store in the 1910 census for North Brookfied, Massachusetts. Supposed to have died in 1913. [This message has been edited by bascall (edited 06-21-2011).] IP: Logged |
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wev Moderator Posts: 4121 |
posted 06-21-2011 07:49 PM
Yes, on the 22nd of December. IP: Logged |
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bascall Posts: 1629 |
posted 06-21-2011 09:29 PM
His shop was on Summer. IP: Logged |
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Kimo Posts: 1627 |
posted 06-23-2011 06:10 PM
Once a style comes into use it never goes away. For such a plain and simple design as this one you would be hard pressed to say anything other than sometime during the retail company's existance, whether nor not the original owner was still alive at the time. If it did not have the retailer's marking, such a simple style of spoon could be pretty much anytime between the late 1700s to yesterday. Also, you can not really tell a date by the kind of silver alloy used. So called coin silver never stopped being even after most American makers switched over to sterling. Some people just like the look of the lower quality coin silver alloy and there have always been 'revivals' where makers crank out old-looking silver to satisfy the desire of some buyers to have place settings look like antique silver. I used parentheses around the term coin silver since even in its day, it was not always made from or even partially from coins. Until the big US silver mine strikes in the third quarter of the 19th century, it was common for someone with damaged or what at the time was thought to be old fashioned looking silverware or candlesticks or whatever to give that silver to the smith who would melt it down and use that silver to make new objects for the customer. IP: Logged |
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