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 SMP Silver Salon Forums
 20th/21st Century Silversmiths
 John O. Bellis
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| Author | Topic: John O. Bellis |
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rat Posts: 63 |
posted 08-30-2004 12:50 AM
  
John O. Bellis was a California silversmith who once worked for Shreve, then struck out on his own. He is known for taking mass produced pieces (of various manufacturers) and then hammering them, sometimes applying raised hammered initials. Some pieces bear only his mark (JOHN O. BELLIS), and others have both his mark and the manufacturers mark. I love his work, and have been collecting various pieces (mainly flatware). However, I have other pieces with similar Bellis style raised letter monograms that are not signed. Some were acquired with other signed Bellis pieces. The big mystery is are these unsigned pieces possibly the work of Bellis, or were they done by some other craftsmen working in similar style? Here are examples of both signed and unsigned pieces... It is difficult to see, but all of the initials are hammered. Below are examples of two signed Bellis spoons of identical pattern and spoon style, and one is finely hammered and the other coarsely hammered: The pieces below are all signed by Bellis (and different manufacturers) - the "L" monograms are all slightly different to fit on the pieces. The "L" serving spoon above was also part of this set. The following pieces are not signed, but have initials in the style of Bellis. The piece on the far left is a Shreve piece, and I wonder if it might have been done by Bellis. Any thoughts? - rat IP: Logged |
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FredZ Posts: 1070 |
posted 08-30-2004 03:36 PM
I too have seen the Bellis pieces and found it interesting that he used the flatware of others and worked them with hammer with soldered on initials. The faux rivets are made with a beading tool (similar to a nail set). I suspect Bellis just adopted the style used by Shreve. Shreve used this rivet technique in their 14th Century style items. Fred IP: Logged |
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