posted 12-22-2007 11:16 PM            

I've learned a lot here already. I'm not a collector (yet), though after a few months of reading about silver and studying my own, I can see how tempting that is. In November I got out my family silver, that I'd put away without much thought shortly after inheriting it more than a decade ago. I wanted to use it for entertaining, and make sure it was stored more carefully, and to know more about it.

Between online information and the very, very helpful Noel Turner and Rainwater books, I managed to identify every piece. The process has been very absorbing and fun, especially with my grandmother's silver. Her family and friends were apparently invited to give her serving items (since she was inheriting a complete set of place pieces); the variety of manufacturers, patterns, and functions of the pieces was an education.

My question is about my great-grandmother's wedding silver, from 1883-4. The pattern is 'Kings'; the place setting pieces are all by Peter L. Krider of Philadelphia, where my great-grandmother was born and brought up. The serving pieces in the same pattern (Kings) are only marked J.E. Caldwell. Because of Rainwater's assessment that Caldwell stopped manufacturing after 1860, I'd wondered if it were at all feasible to research who did make these serving pieces for JEC.

Wev's 2001 post of an 1880 advertising card, which raises a question about whether Caldwell did in fact produce as well as sell in that era, points to one possibility.

Sadly, a guest's post in another thread makes it seem less likely this question can be answered with any confidence:

"I used to work for J.E. Caldwellls in Philadelphia, back in the late 70's, early 80's. It was a very old firm, that used to employ their own team of silversmith and jewelers. Most unfortunatly, the company has since been bought up by a firm down south, and all archival materials lost."

Still, as the poster said, and as I already knew from my school years in Philadelphia, the company has a long, rich history and a loyal following in the area. If I were to try to find out who (if not Caldwell) made these serving pieces, any thoughts on how it would be best to begin?

posted 12-23-2007 11:43 AM            

"produced by Dominick & Haff of Newark and New York under contract with J.E.Caldwell & Company" see page 23 [statemuseumpa.org/Assets/pdf-files/continuum.pdf - gone from the internet]

"SET OF 12 STERLING GOBLETS BY FRANK W. SMITH: Wine stems, #3706, for J.E. Caldwell Co. of Philadelphia." (from auction catalog)

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J.E. Caldwell sterling silver coffee pot, Victorian

American Victorian sterling silver coffee pot manufactured by Redlich & Co. for the famous Philadelphia retailing firm of J.E. Caldwell. Circa 1896-1910. A pot of classical form and design with pineapple finial, acanthus leaf motifs and oval medallions. No monograms. Maker's and retailer's stamps and sterling mark on underside of base. Excellent condition and heavy weight. Size: 10.75 inches high x 9.25 inches across spout x 5 inches diameter. Provenance: Descended through Strawbridge family of Philadelphia.

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It wasn't clear in every case, but I believe those pieces had maker's marks in addition to the J.E. Caldwell stamp. My pieces have no other mark but J.E. Caldwell. They're all in the Kings pattern: a fish slice, salad fork and spoon, soup ladle, gravy ladle, ice tongs, and a set of dessert/tea knives.

I'd love to send pictures but have no digital camera. It's possible there will be one under the tree on Christmas morning (I've done some heavy hinting). If so, I'll see about getting pictures up. I've saved the instruction page.

posted 12-27-2007 05:14 PM            

Early on I identified the other versions of 'Kings' that are out there for purposes of filling in place pieces in my service. Of the possibilities in the U.S., there seems to be more Tiffany 'English King' than just about anything else, with Dominick & Haff 'King' in second place. The Tiffany is usually much more expensive; I've been wondering if that's just the name premium, or if it's significantly heavier.

posted 12-27-2007 09:01 PM            

Ulysses,
"Some of the forks and spoons that I have do NOT have the Shiebler mark, and some do."

Are those available to see at the museum, or in your personal collection?

posted 12-28-2007 06:48 AM            

The "clincher" was a picture of the breakfast knife at a seller's site -- it was displayed at just about actual size, and was identical down to the tiniest detail with mine. The bigger serving pieces have the same characteristics as the breakfast knives.

All the comparing has made me alert to subtle and less subtle differences among the 'Kings'es. But I'm surprised that I didn't notice before something that swarter pointed out in an archived thread explaining the differences between the British 'Kings' and 'Queens' patterns:

"The easiest way to distinguish Queen's from the others is that the shell on the front (only) is convex, while in the others [Kings] it is concave; the shells on the back are all convex."

Whereas the U.S. 'Kings' are the other way round: convex shell on the front, concave on the back. (At least, the Kings patterns from the 1880s: Krider, D&H 'King', Tiffany 'English King'.)

posted 12-28-2007 07:17 PM            

My mother, in a sort of revolt against the gilt and ostentation of my grandmother's table, chose a very pottery-evocative ironstone for her dinner plates. It's 'Poterat', a Wedgwood pattern that was produced for the French market. (Since she got married just a year or so after the end of the war, I'd love to know the story of how it came to be sold here. Returning GIs? "Help Europe recover" campaign? Wedgwood's Etruria factory was closed just a few years after my parents' wedding, so this might be some of the last of the pattern made there. On the other hand, it could have been shipped to France in the thirties and have been sitting around waiting for a more auspicious marketing climate... )

I digress. 'Poterat' is beautiful on the table, but the catch is that what we have for salad and soup plates is Granny's and Cousin Martha's older patterns -- and they're at war with the dinner plates. A few weeks ago, inspired by the silver, I was laying out a place setting to see what's still needed. It hit me that we have no bread plates, and that I could try to find a pattern that would knit the rest of the china together.

Here's where the internet makes such a difference. It reduced to days what might have taken much of a year in the past. I studied pictures of china until my head swam, but I found it! It's 'Cambridge' (H51070, a Royal Doulton pattern made in the 1980s and 1990s and then discontinued. The very years when I might have gotten married and settled down instead of criss-crossing the country doing political work, and the kind of pattern I might have chosen in that alternate universe.

Miraculously, there were a few bread plates at a couple of replacement houses for a reasonable price (bread plates are definitely the least expensive way to try out a pattern!).

So, in the span of six weeks, I've gone from knowing almost zip about silver and china to being intrigued and charged up (just learning so much in such a short time is a rush). Christmas dinner was gorgeous and festive; when my partner saw that I'd actually made a centerpiece, tears came to his eyes.

posted 01-04-2008 07:04 PM            

Have just today encountered at an online auction site a fork in the 'Kings' pattern marked only 'J.E. Caldwell', and it's identical to the Krider pieces here. I sent a message to the seller just for his/her interest, since s/he specializes in silver.

posted 01-15-2008 11:12 PM            

quote:

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George Shiebler produced a very nice English King pattern in the 1870s that he retailed through Tiffany & Co. Some of the forks and spoons that I have do NOT have the Shiebler mark, and some do.

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Around the time Ulysses posted this, I read an article by Janet Zapata, "Artistic wares of George W. Shiebler, silversmith", that made me very interested to see some early Polhamus Kings:

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In 1877 [Shiebler] bought the firm of John Polhamus (Polhamus having died that year), followed five years later by his acquisition of the factory of Morgan Morgans Jr., the successor to Albert Coles.
... At first Shiebler continued to produce the flatware patterns of the firms he had acquired.(4) He then created his own patterns...
(4) These were, from Coles and Reynolds, Doric and Empress; from A. and W. Wood via Coles and Reynolds, Dew Drop, Lily, and Clematis; from John Polhamus, Empire, Corinthian, Ionic, Antique, King's, Princess, French Thread, Louis XIV, Oval Thread, Armor, Queen's, Plain Tipped, Cottage, Diamond, Bead, Honeysuckle, Ruby, Oriental, Plain Thread Shell, and Prince Albert; from Albert Coles via Morgan Morgans Jr., Palace, Ivanhoe, Kenilworth, Jenny Lind, and Mayflower; from Morgan Morgans Jr. directly, Cupid.

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Recently there were photos of some Polhamus & Strong and some Shiebler 'Kings' on a big online auction site, and they look identical to me.

Turner credits Polhamus with being the first to produce a double-struck 'Kings', but gives no authority for that. I'm getting more and more obsessed with pinpointing the transition from single-struck to double-struck 'Kings', which also seems to be the moment in which the shells became convex on the front.

quote:

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George W. Shiebler & Co. flatware
Fri, 08-10-2007 - 1:31pm

Artistic wares of George W. Shiebler, silversmith
Magazine Antiques, July, 1995 by Janet Zapata, D. Albert Soeffing

As lovers of late nineteenth-century silver have long known, the variety of artistic silverware produced by George W. Shiebler and Company is almost immeasurable. Beginning with spoons and forks, Shiebler's repertory soon encompassed creative hollow ware and a broad range of imaginative jewelry. Like many nineteenth-century entrepreneurs, George Shiebler maintained a low public profile, and it is not known to what extent he was the creative inspiration behind the many wonderful designs that came from his shop. The only designs officially credited to him are patents for flatware. However, he is known to have been an astute and ambitious businessman, and either because of his own inventiveness or because he relied on talented employees, he left a remarkable legacy of silver.

Shiebler was born in Baltimore, Maryland, and lived as a child in Washington, D.C., where he became a messenger for the Western Union Telegraph Company. In 1867 he was hired as a traveling salesman by Jahne, Smith and Company, a manufacturer of gold chains at 170 Broadway in New York City. When both Jahne and Smith died in 1870 or 1871, their business was absorbed by the partnership of A. J. G. Hodenpyl, Pierre T. Tunison, and Shiebler. Shiebler left this partnership in 1874 and within two years bought the silver spoon manufacturing business of Coles and Reynolds (which in turn had earlier taken over A. and W. Wood). On March 4, 1876, Shiebler and five employees began to operate Coles and Reynolds under Shiebler's name. In 1877 he bought the firm of John Polhamus (Polhamus having died that year), followed five years later by his acquisition of the factory of Morgan Morgans Jr., the successor to Albert Coles.
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By the 1880's Shiebler employed sixty workers in his showroom at 8 Liberty Place in New York City and his factory in the Ketchum building at York and Washington Streets in Brooklyn. When that factory became too small, he moved into three floors of a building at the corner of St. Mark's and Underhill Avenues in Brooklyn, where he had between 160 and 170 employees. On January 1, 1892, the firm incorporated as George W. Shiebler and Company with a capital stock of $300,000. George Shiebler was president and his brother William F. was treasurer. On August 1 of that year they opened a large store at 179 Broadway in Manhattan, moving on February 1, 1897, to the second floor of the Decker Building at 33 Union Square. In 1900 they moved the store to 5 and 7 Maiden Lane, where they remained until the business closed in 1907. In addition to selling from his showroom, Shiebler kept an office at which retailers from out of town could buy wholesale, and he sent traveling salesmen around the country with samples of his wares.

At first Shiebler continued to produce the flatware patterns of the firms he had acquired. He then created his own patterns, including Montezuma and a number of patterns that incorporate more than one decorative motif. In the Flora pattern, for example, a variety of flowers are depicted on tablespoons, dinner forks, and dessert spoons, while each of the twelve teaspoons not only displays a different flower but has a stem of a different shape. Fifteen separate dies were required for this pattern. In the Fiorito pattern, which the firm advertised as "strewn with flowers," the outline of the pieces was uniform, but the flowers varied. Thus teaspoons had a peony, dessert spoons a poppy, tablespoons a clematis, dinner forks a tulip, and dessert forks an iris.

In 1892 the company advertised a selection of Vienna coffee spoons with enameled handles similar to the strawberry forks shown in Plate XVII. Each piece was numbered consecutively from one to twelve, and they could be purchased either in assorted designs or all of one pattern.

Like nearly all silver firms at the time, Shiebler's produced souvenir spoons. His first known example, patented on May 19, 1891, commemorates the port city of Baltimore. Appropriately, the handle includes a turtle, a crab, shells, and seaweed, while the gilded bowl in the shape of a clam shell shows the monument at North Point, a memorial to the Battle of Baltimore, which ended the War of 1812. Shiebler also made souvenir spoons for New York City and Boston, as well as one to celebrate the four hundredth anniversary of Columbus's landing, one for the United States Navy, and one depicting Saint John the Divine.

Among the first medallion flatware patterns Shiebler offered was one originally made by John Polhamus, who patented it on May 9, 1865. The cameo portrait, like others of the period, is set against a stippled background and encircled by a border to simulate an ancient Greek coin. About 1882, while continuing to replicate heads from Greek mythology, Shiebler dispensed with the surrounding background and border and placed the heads directly into the end of irregularly shaped handles with hammered backgrounds. Some of these heads are gilt, and because of the "14K" stamped on the back of the pieces, it was thought that the medallions were cast in gold and then applied. However, closer examination reveals that the portraits are integral to the pieces and were either plated with a thin layer of fourteen karat gold or made in the rolled gold process.

Before he introduced his redesigned medallion flatware, Shiebler brought out a line of jewelry he called "curio medallion," which was designed to look as though it had been "unearthed at Pompeii and Herculaneum." The medallions were added to brooches, made into bracelets, cufflinks, and, finally, used on flatware and hollow ware. The portraits were based on images in pattern books of ancient sculpture. Some American manufacturers imitated this jewelry, as did French and English jewelers. Makers in Birmingham, England, called this the "Homeric style," a description that Shiebler used in his own advertising in 1900.

Silver jewelry became a large industry between 1880 and 1900 since relatively few could then afford gem-set jewelry. Firms such as William B. Kerr and Company and Unger Brothers, both in Newark, New Jersey, produced art nouveau jewelry stamped to imitate repousse work and then backed with a sheet of silver. Shiebler's jewelry for the most part has a more solid feel. A section of a piece of jewelry may have been stamped or cast, but it was then finished with hand chasing or applied with decorative motifs. Shiebler probably began making this jewelry after the hollow-ware style described as "leave work, consisting of silver formed into leaves and tinted in all the rich Autumn colors." Such hollow ware dates to the early 1880's, during the aesthetic movement, when firms such as Tiffany and Gorham were applying insects of contrasting metals to the surfaces of their silverware.

In addition to objects with medallions and naturalistic ornament, Shiebler also offered a variety of objects reminiscent of Renaissance openwork. These included trays, dishes, serving implements, and spoons.

n the 1880's Shiebler began to produce hollow ware in addition to flatware and jewelry. Three notable presentation pieces were each illustrated on the first page of various issues of the Jewelers' Circular and Horological Review. The first is a centerpiece included in the company's display at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Designed by F. Schmidt, the superintendent of the factory, it is thirty-two inches tall. A figure of Columbia stands astride an etched globe set into an orchid, which is cut with apertures to hold flowers. Four petals on the lower section make up the stand, while four petals on the upper section form receptacles for bonbons or almonds. The lower petals are burnished; the upper ones are gilded and have a satin finish; and the globe, orchid, and figure of Columbia are of oxidized silver. The centerpiece was reputed to be "one of the largest and most artistic pieces of work ever wrought by ."

Also in 1893, the Jewelers' Circular pictured a loving cup commissioned for the golden wedding anniversary of E. C. Converse, the president of the Boston Rubber Shoe Company. The bulbous cup is twelve inches tall and has three handles formed by leaves interspersed with gold forget-me-nots. Flanking each handle are pierced panels in a Persian floral motif executed in opaque and plique-a-jour enamels, Applied in eighteen-karat gold on the three sides are, respectively, the family crest, anniversary dates, and initials of the recipients.

The third presentation piece is a yachting trophy commissioned from Shiebler by Rand and Crane in Boston to be awarded by the Brooklyn Yacht Club to the boat making the fastest run from New York City to Marblehead, Massachusetts. The trophy is in the shape of a Spanish caravel derived from a monument to Robert Louis Stevenson in San Francisco. The six-inch-long ship is not fully rigged, although in the illustration it is depicted under full sail with waves curling under the bow.

Other imaginative hollow-ware objects by Shiebler are a tray engraved with three chicks, one of which is emerging from its shell; a decanter shown which is reminiscent of a cream pitcher made by William Hollingshead (w.c. 1754-1785) of Philadelphia between 1760 and 1780, which itself was based on an earlier English example; and a coffeepot in the Persian manner. A two-handled loving cup embellished with Celtic motifs of the kind that were revived in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, especially by artists and craftsmen of the Glasgow School of Art, can be datedto between 1904 and 1907 and the design attributed to Albert F. Saunders, who has been identified as Shiebler's chief designer from 1904 to 1907.

On November 19, 1907, the Shiebler Company, having declared bankruptcy. was bought out by the Gorham Manufacturing Company of Providence, Rhode Island, for twenty-four hundred dollars. Two days later Gorham resold Shiebler's machinery, tools, designs, and benches to Hayes and McFarland of Mount Vernon, New York, for five thousand dollars. However, dies and rolls for spoons and forks were sent to Gorham in Providence, where they were ground down to remove the designs, before being returned to Hayes and McFarland. The one known exception, Shiebler's American Beauty pattern, continued to be made by the Mauser Manufacturing Company of New York City. Many examples survive that are stamped with their name as well as the winged "S," the Shiebler hallmark that was cut into the original dies. Obviously some separate agreement was negotiated to save the dies of this still modern and popular design. This comes as no surprise since Hayes and McFarland was closely connected with the Mauser firm.

After the sale of his firm George Shiebler became an employee of Gorham, where he continued to work until his death on September 13, 1920. It is a tribute to the man and his firm that Shiebler silverware has attracted many devoted collectors despite the lack of a Shiebler archive and the paucity of published information about the company.

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