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Author	Topic: makers mark
petespt unregistered	posted 11-18-2003 09:12 PM I'm looking for info on a makers mark or what I think is a makers mark on the bottom of a silverplated creamer. The mark is a spider web with a star inside and a w or m inside the star. Any info would be appreciated. Thanks Pete IP: Logged
Patrick Vyvyan Posts: 640 Registered: May 2003	posted 11-18-2003 09:31 PM Your mark belongs to the Webster Silverplate Co. I suspect this was a different company to E G Webster of Brooklyn, but I'm not certain. Any clarification on the relationship? I've seen the mark on pieces which appear to date from the late 19th / early 20th centuries. IP: Logged
Dale Posts: 2132 Registered: Nov 2002	posted 11-19-2003 12:04 PM This certainly does sound like the Webster Co of Brooklyn's mark. The firm made quite a bit of high style holloware well into the last century. Rainwater gives this as becoming part of International Silver in the 20's. Which may mean the mark was used intermittently down to the present. The marks used by IS are an area that needs a great deal of study. IP: Logged
Patrick Vyvyan Posts: 640 Registered: May 2003	posted 11-19-2003 04:52 PM The mark I generally associate with E G Webster is a bent arm holding a hammer. Around this, is lettered "E. G. Webster & Bro N.Y." up to 1886, and "E. G. Webster & Son N. Y." afterwards. Pieces usually also have "Quadruple" and "Hard White Metal". I have seen the Webster web mark also inscribed "Quadruple", a term that I beleive was discontinued around 1910. Thus, if they are the same Webster,both marks were in use at more or less the same time. Do you know when E G Webster became part of International? Certainly they moved from New York to Meriden in 1928, but they may have been bought out considerably earlier. [This message has been edited by Patrick Vyvyan (edited 11-19-2003).] IP: Logged
Dale Posts: 2132 Registered: Nov 2002	posted 11-19-2003 07:09 PM All I know about Webster is what Rainwater says. Part of the problem with silver research seems to me to be that it is carried out by people interested in design and style and craftmanship, not in business. For a company to have two marks used simultaneously is not that unusual. Flatware does frequently have all sorts of marks. Marks on US plate IMHO frequently represent different paths to the market. One mark could be for mail order houses; another for retail jewelry stores. This always strikes me as the most logical solution to the array of marks we find on old plate. Regarding IS, what I keep coming back to is that it was not, in the beginning at least, a company in the modern sense. IS began as a trust. This means it was a joint effort by a number of companies to divy up the market. And to avoid competing with one another. Which is a very different setup from a centrally controlled firm. It is entirely possible that Webster cooperated with the IS consortium for a long period of time before becoming a formal part of the company. Because this was illegal, all records would have long ago been destroyed. Which might account for the lack of information we have on a lot of companies in the IS orbit. From Bschool I remember the old story that the big 3 auto makers kept American Motors (Ramblers) going to prove they were not a monopoly. Wonder if this scenario would explain a lot of the history of firms like Webster. IP: Logged
wev Moderator Posts: 4121 Registered: Apr 99	posted 11-19-2003 09:10 PM Actually, it was not illegal at the time and the transition to a 'real' IS corporate entity came into being only when the trust busters began looking past the oil and railroad companies. A similar situation occured when the leading east coast type makers banded together as American Type Foundry (ATF) to drive the independents out of business. They made no bones about their intention or trust makeup until the business and political waters became too hot. They then proclaimed themselves a single entity corporation and welcomed all competition (which had long since gone out of business). [This message has been edited by wev (edited 11-19-2003).] IP: Logged

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