posted 08-15-2007 07:15 PM            

I recently bought an old enameled sterling pin because it was made for one of the universities from which I graduated - the University of Pennsylvania - and it brought back nice memories. These were made for the various Ivy League schools, such as the University of Pennsylvania, Harvard, Princeton, etc. and I have occasionally seen them for a few other old schools as well. I have never been sure as to the time range in which these were made, however. This example was made by C.M. Robbins and from the general style I get the feeling of somewhere in the first three or four decades of the 1900s - though the style of the P and the type of catch make me think turn of the century. It is finely made with clear red enamel over a patterned area, non-transparent blue enamel, and hand chasing on the letter P and on the rope area along the staff and the left side of the pennant. The flag was made with a waviness to the silver to make it appear as if it is flying in the wind. The length from the base of the staff to the point of the pennant is about two and a quarter inches. The back has a pin and catch but the catch is the old style open C rather than the rotating safety clasp which seems odd for such a finely made pin. The Robbins marking is unusual in that I have not seen this variety before. It is also not shown as one of the usual Robbins markings in Rainwater though it has similarities to one of them. My question to everyone is whether you can help me determine the approximate date that this pin would have been made - whether by when this version of the Robbins marking was in use or maybe by having seen it in an old catalog or just by the style of the pin.

Many thanks in advance for whatever information you can share.

posted 08-23-2007 04:58 PM            

If you could show a picture of the pinhinge, that might help me in dating it too.

posted 08-23-2007 10:05 PM            

Penn is the oldest University in the country - it was started in 1740 by Ben Franklin (Harvard, William and Mary, and Yale are earlier but unlike Penn they were not academic institutions at that point, they were just seminaries to train clergy). Of course this pin is no where near as old as that, but my point is that trying to set an earliest date possible based on when the University was started is not of use in this case. The more useful date to set the earliest possible date would be the start of Charles M. Robbins which is 1892.

In some recent researching Robbins I understand they changed the company's name to Robbins Company, Inc. in 1912 so this might be a latest date but knowing how companies kept using old markings after they changed their name I don't have much confidence in this being an absolute outside date given the pattern that silver companies seem to have in continuing the use of older markings after they change their names and ownerships. Swarter's helpful finding of the CMR in the diamond without the TRADEMARK marking in the 1915 Jeweler's Circular is plain proof of this.

It is a very nice pin and I am happy to have it. The unusual CM Robbins marking that so far no one here has seen on other objects in their silver collecting adds to my enjoyment of it.

If anyone else finds any information on this marking, or finds these exact pins in an old Robbins catalog I would love to learn more.

Here are two photos of the hinge: