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The "Bertha Spoon"

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Author	Topic: The "Bertha Spoon"
Ulysses Dietz Moderator Posts: 1265 Registered: May 99	posted 12-06-2006 08:59 PM I just found myself quoted in a magazine, not about silver, but about the fact that, as a curator, I like to personally collect odd bits of Victorian silver. This then refers to my interest in "Bertha Spoons," which is a term only I use, and thus would confuse anyone reading this article. But, for the silver record, a "Bertha Spoon," which I apparently referred to somewhere else in this forum at some point, is a souvenir spoon from the 1893 Chicago World's Fair (World's Columbian Exposition) featuring a profile bust of a woman as the handle. She is Bertha Honore Palmer, Mrs. Potter Palmer, President of the Board of Lady Managers for the fair. She was also my great grandmother's sister, and thus a legend in my own childhood. I have collected these "Bertha Spoons" for that reason. Maybe we should start a souvenir spoon forum. [This message has been edited by Ulysses Dietz (edited 12-06-2006).] IP: Logged
Scott Martin Forum Master Posts: 11520 Registered: Apr 93	posted 12-06-2006 09:53 PM A Museum's Want List IP: Logged
June Martin Forum Master Posts: 1326 Registered: Apr 93	posted 12-23-2006 12:24 PM Actually, we have been courting a potential moderator for a Souvenir Spoon forum but haven't been able to seal the deal. Anyone else out there interested in co-moderating such a forum? We can have as many as three moderators. IP: Logged
Ulysses Dietz Moderator Posts: 1265 Registered: May 99	posted 08-12-2007 11:12 AM At last, images of the Bertha Spoon. As if anyone cares, but it has become a personal quest of mine... Here is the image of the handle, based on a widely published image of Mrs. Potter Palmer, nee Bertha Honore, of Chicago, the President of the Board of Lady Managers of the great World's Columbian Exposition of 1893. The spoon was made by Dominick & Haff and featured an image of the Women's Building, masterminded by Mrs. Palmer. Let's see if this works... IP: Logged
Ulysses Dietz Moderator Posts: 1265 Registered: May 99	posted 08-12-2007 11:13 AM Oops! Forgot the Women's Building--this, by the way, is a coffee spoon--I have only collected the teaspoon size, because I use them. IP: Logged
DB Posts: 252 Registered: May 2006	posted 08-12-2007 10:03 PM Was the Bertha spoon a "wild seller" or was it just given as token present by Mrs.Palmer? IP: Logged
Ulysses Dietz Moderator Posts: 1265 Registered: May 99	posted 08-15-2007 09:23 AM I suspect it was far below the radar of Mrs. Palmer and her family, and thus wouldn't have been a sort of personal memento. (Mrs. Palmer's sister was my great-grandmother, and no one in my family has ever seen one of these before--hence my obsession with them). It must have been a fairly popular seller-probably at the Women's Building-because they keep turning up in the marketplace (I have six now and have given away two coffee spoon size). It is very much rarer than the standard plated Columbus portrait spoons, which seem to appear at a rate of about a dozen for every one of these. IP: Logged
DB Posts: 252 Registered: May 2006	posted 08-18-2007 10:00 AM Thanks for the info. Good luck finding more Bertha spoons. IP: Logged

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