Posts: 4121
Registered: Apr 99

posted 02-20-2005 03:05 PM            

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Here is a pretty salt spoon

with marks I have never been able to trace

There is a feather script mono S L on the front. On the back is a much later crest and motto (vincit qui se vincit / he conquers who conquers himself) of the Houlihan family. The piece is light in construction; the handle, though not worn, is fairly thin in gauge. There is no drop, applied or engraved. Length is 4 1/2 inches.

Has anyone seen this mark before?

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posted 02-20-2005 04:02 PM            

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I do not know what the style of the letters is in the HJP, but it seems that Philadelphia had more letters of this style than other cites. Could that mean that the die maker was from Philadelphia? For example the H in Hollingshead's and Humphreys' marks is similar to your H, although yours is not as slanted as their H.

Is there a reference book that examines the various fonts used by die makers? I suspect the silversmith left it up to the die maker to choose the font style or perhaps the smith would choose a die maker based on what they had already created for others.

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posted 02-20-2005 04:25 PM            

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Yes, I had thought of Philadelphia as well, though New York/New Jersey should not be left out ala the marks used by the various Lupps.

As for type faces, marks pretty much followed the style of the day in roman type; colonial makers used something vaguely Caslonian; federals Bodoni/Bulmer, and mid to late victorians any of the many vulgar victorian faces. There were, of course, anomolies -- David Kinsey's pure Johnsonian sans serif at a time when you'd be hard pressed to find a type foundry here or abroad showing such a face. It does appear that there were at least a few die cutters with very distinct styles -- the one who cut marks using a shaped cartouche and a background of fine diagonal lines for Thomas Fletcher and others in the Pennsylvannia/Delaware area comes to mind -- but not nearly enough research has been done on the topic.

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posted 02-21-2005 10:12 PM            

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H. J. Pepper? He is Delaware, I always go for the most expensive possible.

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posted 02-22-2005 12:44 PM            

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The suggestion of Henry Pepper could be correct, or the initials could be coincidental. I don't believe I have seen this mark anywhere else, either. Pepper was in Delaware from 1813 - 1828, and in Philadelphia from 1828 - 1850. According to Hindes, his earliest mark was H.I.PEPPER in a rectangle, and later H.J.PEPPER; Winterthur is reported to have a pair of spectacles marked HJP and atrtributed to him; presumably this is in Roman caps, and not in script, but neither source which mentions it is specific If it were script I am sure wev would know about it.

As wev says, script initials are not confined to Philadelphia, but there are several there. They may be more frequent on Continental spoons.

There is nothing regional about style of this spoon; while it might look to some too early for Pepper, or too early for his Pennsylvania period, actually has been made continuously throughout the 19th Century. From the photo, the spoon looks fairly light, typical of the Federal pepriod - presumably, later ones would be heavier.

Incidentally, hatched backgrounds occurred in Baltimore and Pittsburgh, as well as Philadelphia.

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All times are ET