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Author Topic:   Straws
ahwt

Posts: 2334
Registered: Mar 2003

iconnumber posted 04-30-2016 12:32 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for ahwt     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote



Above are two iced tea straws; at least that are what I think they are for. The Gorham straw has the letters H and M with their mark. One may be a date mark and the other may be the weight mark as the letter H can stand for 1875 or heavy weight while the letter M can stand for 1880 or medium weight. The design of these spoons would seem to me to be after either date. There also is a mark on the right end that look a little like an hourglass. That is the date letter for 1901 and may be the real date that they were made. Does anyone have an idea what all these letters mean.

The USMAL TAXCO sterling straw is from Mexico and I think dates from the mid 1900s. This company made several straws of this design with various things placed at the end for stirring. This one has a simple spade, but others have leaves or abstract designs and they are all attractive. It seems unusual to have a mark on a separate plate that is then attach to the straw. I know nothing about this company and wonder how long they were in business.


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dragonflywink

Posts: 993
Registered: Dec 2002

iconnumber posted 05-01-2016 07:06 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for dragonflywink     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I've always known these as 'sippers', collected them for a while, but sold off all except a set of 6 sterling with engraved heart bowls a few years ago. They were usually sold as lemonade and/or iced tea spoons, the ad below is from 1920. The Gorham 'H' series were flatware pieces that weren't connected to a line pattern, that suffix put into use in 1898, suspect the 'M' is one of Gorham's mystery letter codes, does look to be the 1901 date code...

~ Cheryl

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ahwt

Posts: 2334
Registered: Mar 2003

iconnumber posted 05-01-2016 09:21 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for ahwt     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Thanks Cheryl, you have a great collection of old advertisements.
Gotham just about filled the back of this straw with marks and I wonder how they stamped all of them without crushing the straw. Maybe they inserted a rod into in end of the sipper as a backstop.
Sippers is a good name for these and they would make a nice collection.

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dragonflywink

Posts: 993
Registered: Dec 2002

iconnumber posted 05-01-2016 10:22 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for dragonflywink     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
It was a sweet little collection, but it just sort of fell by the wayside for me, still find them charming, and believe I also have a couple of Mexican alpacca leaf-bowl sippers stashed away somewhere; have seen the 'UXMAL' mark before and mid 20th century dating seems about right on those, as well as those by other Mexican makers. Your hypothesis on the Gorham stamps seems likely to me, will say that most all my sippers had pretty sturdy straws.

Thank you, Scott, if you had to fix my image - for some reason, every once in a while my posts don't show up for some time, even with refreshing, so I couldn't check to see if I'd gone astray in my early morning bleary-eyed attempt...

~Cheryl

[This message has been edited by dragonflywink (edited 05-01-2016).]

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Scott Martin
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Posts: 11520
Registered: Apr 93

iconnumber posted 05-04-2016 09:23 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Scott Martin     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote

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