posted 07-28-2012 02:38 PM            

It looks really familiar, but I can't find it. I can't even figure out what the letters are: CWS? GWS? Maybe that squiggle isn't an S after all?

It's well made and engraved, though not as heavy or finely engraved as the very best ones. (The lightness makes it more comfortable to wear, though.)

Front of the comb:

Back of the comb:

posted 07-28-2012 03:12 PM            

Is it earlier than the winged-S mark? Simultaneous with it? Is 1887 likely as the date of manufacture?

This thread is interesting, but doesn't quite settle the question: Shiebler marks and dates?

posted 08-01-2012 09:55 AM            

In my Shiebler collection is one piece with that mark and I bought it just because it had the mark. This is a mustard spoon in the Fiddle Thread pattern that was made for Tiffany. There is no date on this spoon, but I found one website that dates the pattern to 1876, which Rainwater says is the year Shiebler started in business in his own name. Maybe that helps a bit.

Interestingly, to me anyway, is that the marks are spread along the entire length of the handle rather than grouped together as is usually done.

posted 08-01-2012 12:19 PM            

That makes me lean toward my original opinion that my comb is from c. 1877 and the dated inscription is a later addition. But I guess I'll never know for sure.

posted 08-01-2012 02:32 PM            

quote:

---

Originally posted by Polly:
Interesting, thank you!

That makes me lean toward my original opinion that my comb is from c. 1877 and the dated inscription is a later addition. But I guess I'll never know for sure.

---

Polly,
Here is another thought --- maybe the engraved decoration was also added at the same time and was signed and dated by the person who did the engraving.

As I look at it there is almost the look of what I think of as "bright cut", which -- I was told years ago -- was done by Victorian ladies as handiwork.

At one time I owned two English spoons that had been covered with bright work front and back. Both were purchased in London when I went there in the middle 70's. One I bought in the silver vaults and the next year I bought the second one at Harrods. One was made in London in 1799 and the other in Sheffield in 1875-76. They were stolen from me a couple of years ago when I was careless in a restaurant where I had taken them to show a friend and before I was able to get photos and post to the Forum to find out if what I had been told was so, and if they had maybe come into fashion again.

Anyway, when I first got them I wanted to learn about them and find more so I went into a fancy antique silver store on Madison Avenue and showed them to the man who was behind the counter. I was enamored and he looked down his nose and said they would never carry such a thing in their store because the engraving had ruined the original. Of course he was right, but I did not know those things in those days. And, he did tell me it was Victorian ladies who did this as some others might do needlework.

So, if that story is true then maybe ladies in the US were doing the same thing at that time and that is how the comb came to be decorated and dated. Someone with a really good "eye" might be able to see if the dating and initials "match" the Shiebler mark or the engraving better, perhaps?

posted 08-01-2012 08:55 PM            

Well, I am back and hanging my very dense head. It seems that I introduced my two English bright cut spoons into another discussion on the subject of my two spoons a while back and forgot about it. Another French spoon (if this is not the proper way to link to another article in the forum, I apologize)

In re-reading the discussion it was stated by others that the story I had been told about the two English spoons being decorated by Victorian ladies was not true, because -- as you stated -- they did not have the expertise to do this work, or the tools. So, I guess we should forget all that I said today, but re-reading the previous post was interesting as it is full of good feedback from members, feedback I hope I remember the next time I think of posting about my two lost spoons.

Elizabeth