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Author Topic:   Porter Blanchard Markings on Bowl?
Kimo

Posts: 1627
Registered: Mar 2003

iconnumber posted 01-25-2015 11:52 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Kimo     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
One of my favorite pieces of silver is a small Porter Blanchard bowl. It measures about 5.25 inches in diameter and about 2.3 inches high. It is a nice thickness - not too thin, not too thick, and weighs 8.1 ounces. It features the hand planishing finish with the thousands of subtle hand hammering marks. It also is exceptionally graceful in its curves and balanced design that is very pleasing to the eye.

I am not an expert on Porter Blanchard and so I would like to ask if any of you might be able to answer a couple of questions that I have not been able find answers to yet.

The first is the marking on the bottom. All of the Porter Blanchard pieces I have seen so far have a marking of either Sterling or Pewter. This one has neither - there is no indication as to what kind of metal this is. To my eye it looks like silver, and in the few areas where there is some wear such as on the base the underlying metal seems to be silver as well. In the bottom of the interior there are a couple of tiny nicks into the metal and the underlying metal there also looks like silver. Did Porter Blanchard ever work in silver plate? It does not make much sense to me that he would put all of this work into creating a bowl of this quality of workmanship but then use silver plate when he was so famous for his working in sterling. I am open to any thoughts on why this is not marked as to its metal content - including not even having a silver plate marking of some kind.

My second question is whether there is any chance of coming up with a range of dates or era as to when this would have been made. Do the markings on the bottom indicate this? When did he use the pictograph of a smith hammering an object - throughout his entire career or just at a certain time? The number 009 seems to be applied one digit at a time since the alignment of the digits is not perfect. Is this a pattern number or something else, and can it be used for coming up with an approximate date? I would assume if it is a pattern number this would be an early pattern, being number 009. However, would he have gone on to make this pattern for the rest of his entire career? Would this be something he made in the first part of his career or something later or is there no way to tell?


[This message has been edited by Kimo (edited 01-25-2015).]

[This message has been edited by Kimo (edited 01-25-2015).]

[This message has been edited by Kimo (edited 01-25-2015).]

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wev
Moderator

Posts: 4121
Registered: Apr 99

iconnumber posted 01-25-2015 07:59 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for wev     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Having almost no knowledge of his work, I can't say anything about the second set of questions. As to the first, I have a pewter (I have always assumed) double drinks jigger with the same marks. My brother has the matching ice bowl, which is a match to your piece, but a bit larger. I do not know if it has a pattern number, as well. I believe my parents bought them sometime in the late 1950s.

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asheland

Posts: 935
Registered: Nov 2003

iconnumber posted 01-25-2015 09:20 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for asheland     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
It looks like sterling, but I have no way to be sure about that...
Nice piece!

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Kimo

Posts: 1627
Registered: Mar 2003

iconnumber posted 01-26-2015 06:08 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Kimo     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Thanks for your thoughts Wev and Asheland. I keep marveling at the perfect proportions in this bowl. Porter was an exceptional artist.

Does anyone else know anything or have any thoughts?

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ahwt

Posts: 2334
Registered: Mar 2003

iconnumber posted 01-26-2015 11:12 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for ahwt     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Beautiful bowl.

It would be fun to determine if it was solid silver or plate. Sometime in the past someone on this forum told how to do this by measuring the weight of the object in water vs. its weight out of water. I have never tried this and really don't know how to measure the weight of something in water. Maybe someone else has tried this nondestructive method of testing.

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Scott Martin
Forum Master

Posts: 11520
Registered: Apr 93

iconnumber posted 01-27-2015 06:12 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Scott Martin     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
ahwt,

The test you are thinking of is called "Specific Gravity" test. There are many posts that mention the "Specific Gravity" test, click here to do a search

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middletom

Posts: 467
Registered: May 2004

iconnumber posted 01-27-2015 11:14 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for middletom     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Perhaps the person to contact about this would be Randy Stromsoe. He was Porter's last apprentice and may be a good source for answering your question. It appears to me to be sterling but I don't know why the sterling stamp would be left off.

Geoff Blake

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vathek

Posts: 966
Registered: Jun 99

iconnumber posted 01-28-2015 07:10 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for vathek     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Does it tarnish? When you polish it does it leave black marks on the cloth? It looks like pewter to me which can mimic silver pretty well.

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Kimo

Posts: 1627
Registered: Mar 2003

iconnumber posted 01-28-2015 04:09 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Kimo     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Hi Vathek. Yes, a polishing cloth with a bit of silver polishing paste on it does come away black from removing tarnish which leads me to think this is either silver plated or solid silver. Also, it is a much whiter metal than pewter so that also leads me to think that it is either silver plated or solid silver.

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Kimo

Posts: 1627
Registered: Mar 2003

iconnumber posted 01-28-2015 04:13 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Kimo     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Hi Geoff.

Thanks for the reminder about Randy Stromsoe having been Porter's last apprentice. There is an email address for Randy on Randy's website that I will use to email my question to him. Hopefully he will know and I will share whatever he may tell me with everyone here.

Kimo

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Kimo

Posts: 1627
Registered: Mar 2003

iconnumber posted 02-02-2015 11:17 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Kimo     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I sent Randy Stromsoe an email a few days ago and am hopefully awaiting hearing from him on anything he can remember. In addition to being Porter's last apprentice he later became the Designer/Superintendent of Porter Blanchard Silversmiths, Inc. in the late 1970s.

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Kimo

Posts: 1627
Registered: Mar 2003

iconnumber posted 02-02-2015 07:28 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Kimo     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Randy Stromsoe generously shared some great information on this bowl that I would like to pass along the main text of his email response to me which he has given me permission to share on the Forum:


I remember these bowls well. Porter designed them and began making them some time in the 30's. They are called THE TUMBLE HOME BOWL. He lived near a ship yard and later became a wooden boat builder himself. If you look up "Tumble Home" in ship and boat design, it was used so if another ship/boat rammed you, the widest point would be just about in the middle and the top of the side are really curved in therefore not allowing easy access over the railing, and more stability etc. Porter really liked this look.

This is polished pewter.

I somehow feel that Lewis made this as a gift for someone. Lewis didn't have a pewter stamp. He was a sterling flatware man and didn't work in pewter or have pewter up at his studio in Calabasas. If our hollowware shop had made it would have been stamped pewter. Also later on after Porter died and the whole company was moved up to the shop in Calabasas it became a privately owned company Porter Blanchard Inc. They used straight number stamps. The one on your bowl as you pointed was hand stamped individually 009. Each bowl is a bit different depending on the craftsman who made it as we spun them on air and didn't use a form. It was a beautiful little bowl. Porter was making them in the shop when I was working with him - he also would have stamped it pewter. Also, those are not Porter's hammer marks and they are not my hammer marks. It's funny I can usually tell by the hammer marks even before looking at the stamp as to which craftsman made a piece, how many worked on it and about the time it was made.

I caught wind in the late 90's that the new company owners were bringing an air hammer in to save time. That's just about when I gave noticed and moved to the central coast of California. All of those great silversmiths of yesteryear would have had a fit. I know I did. Fortunately I ended up with most all of Porter's and Lewis' tools and templates, notes, drawings and many of George Porter Blanchard's things ... including the B09 stamp.

So - to recap, I think this was made by Lewis Wise sometime between 1950 and 1970.

I have a lot of information about tools and pieces, old photos etc. on my Facebook page and would welcome anyone to view it. Randy Stromsoe Silversmith. It's so much easier to keep updated then my website.

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Polly

Posts: 1970
Registered: Nov 2004

iconnumber posted 02-02-2015 09:56 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Polly     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I love that he can identify who made it by the hammer strokes!

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Kimo

Posts: 1627
Registered: Mar 2003

iconnumber posted 02-06-2015 12:47 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Kimo     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Hi Polly. I was really impressed by the hammer strokes identification as well. I think that someone with Randy's level of experience and expertise combined with the community of master silversmiths being modest makes this possible. I would think that every master silversmith has a "signature" in the way their silver turns out. This is something I had not considered before though it makes sense.

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middletom

Posts: 467
Registered: May 2004

iconnumber posted 03-27-2015 11:36 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for middletom     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
The mention by Randy of the pneumatic hammer reminds me that when I started at ONC, there was a pneumatic hammer which was not used. I was told that Mr. Barnes had purchased it to try to speed the over hammering of pewter. However, it was found that the smiths hand tended to bounce back more than the pewter was dented, so that was given up. I guess the path of least resistance was the smiths hand and not the pewter, which makes sense.

Geoff Blake

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