By KC & IronLord's Request: My Grandmother's Spoon Collection

[talesofthesevenseas]

Has anyone been able to identify the "Terry" hallmark on this spoon? I've searched and I'm coming up empty handed. The marks I'm finding for Terry & Co and for another Cork Terry do not match this one. Anyone having better luck? If I can figure out the date of the spoon, I might have a better chance attributing the monogram to the correct person. I suspect this will turn out to be an American mark since the family has been here since colonial times. Thanks!

[sapphire]

Tales, is this it?

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~silversmiths/makers/silversmiths/50932.htm

http://www.replacements.com/webquote/GTEGTE1.htm

http://www.replacements.com/webquote/GTEGTE2.htm

[talesofthesevenseas]

YES!!  Good goin' Sapphire!

Looks like my pattern is Geer Terry's "GTE2", five o'clock teaspoon in coin silver, the second link you have listed. (Photo example below) I think it's this one with the "shoulders" on the handle of the spoon, rather than the smooth one. Although my example doesn't look like the shoulders are as sharp as this one. But the Mark is dead on.

Wow, this is an OLD one! I'm sure my grandmother had no idea that that spoon was that old. She had other ones indicated as older which were not. I didn't think it was going to go back that far. Way coo!!! Now I know where to start hunting for those initials. Many thanks Sapphire, I was coming up with nothing on that Hallmark. You rock!

[sapphire]

  Found two more sites in the search...........

http://chicagosilver.com/marks_master_list.htm

http://www.sterlingflatwarefashions.com/index.html


Gotta love that first one!

[talesofthesevenseas]

Here is the date info from Sapphire's link. His Worcester MA location puts Geer Terry right in the right location for my family too:

He worked from 1797 to 1814 as a silversmith in Worcester MA 3

Advertised in the The Massachusetts Spy, 20 May 1801, "Geer Terry, Watchmaker, Silversmith and Jeweler, . . . has removed to the building formerly occupied by the Clerk of the Court, nearly opposite Mr. Waldo's Store; where he ... has for sale; gold beads, rings, earrings, and stone nubs, silver table, tea and salt spoons, buckles, buttons, thimbles, sugar tongs, &c. &c. of his own make, warranted to be good and cheap for Cash. . . . Cash given for old gold and silver." 3

He was a partner before 1814 with Moses Wing in Worcester MA 3

He was a partner from 1814 to 1815 with Aaron Willard in Worcester MA

The Worcester Gazette of Jan. 4, 1815 told of dissolution of firm by mutual consent. 3

He worked from 1816 to 1858 as a silversmith in Enfield CT 3

[talesofthesevenseas]

Sapphire, we should definitely add that first link to the Special Threads and Exceptional Information section of the forum. Great resource.

[regularjoe2]

Nice spoons , talesof .

Very good research efforts/results by everybody !

[talesofthesevenseas]

Thanks! Finding out it was that old totally made my day!

[wendy177]

Awesome!!! Tales I am about 20 min. outside of Worcester MA. Would love to know what stands now where his business was. Will try to get to the old archives in Worcester this weekend & see what I can dig up. Would be very interesting if he kept a written ledger of pieces sold & to who. any family names I should be on the lookout for?? Will see if I can copy any photos of the business itself or ledgers. what fun!!!

[sapphire]

Tales, any chance you have a subscription to Genealogybank.com ?

http://www.genealogybank.com/gbnk/newspapers/explore/USA/Massachusetts/Worcester/?sort=_rank_%3AD&lname=terry&fname=geer&minit=&kwinc=silver&kwexc=&formDate=&processingtime=

[talesofthesevenseas]

Wendy177: Thank-you!!! That would be fantastic! There are two family surnames that could be related to the monogram on this spoon that might turn up- Adams (our most likely candidate) and Perkins (less likely). I'll do some hunting for an ancestor or relation whose initials match the spoon on Ancestry.com.

Sapphire: No, my subscription is with Ancestry.com, but I should have access to the same newspaper database through Ancestry. I'll run some searches on Geer Terry and see what comes up.

[talesofthesevenseas]

Here's another spoon I could use some help identifying. This is the spoon shown on the top left of the rack marked "Bolles". This is the same Bolles-Bradbury family who lost John Bradbury in the explosion of the Jenny Lind in 1853. I have a couple of additional serving pieces that all come from New Haven CT, where the family was located prior to coming to Guilford NY.

Here is the Bolles spoon, front side. All that is marked on the back is "G 925/1000". I know the 925/100 is the silver content, but I don't know if "G" tells us anything or not. I'm unable to locate the maker, however I do see some identical spoons with this mark on Worthpoint and Ebay.

Research whiz kids, can you find anything I've missed? This info along with photos of the Bolles spoon and a whole lot more will be going to the files on John Bradbury at the Guilford Historical Society.

[wendy177]

Tales I did find a Christopher Gallup to be a silversmith in North Groton CT c1800 and a John Gardiner also in New London CT. c 1760-1776.  W Rogers from Wallingford Ct. also produced a spoon  pattern name  TIPPED   that matches your spoons style but his makers mark does not match yours. Conelius Kierstede was a silversmith in New Haven CT.  c 1675-1757 and I believe he had several apprentices ( may be one of those)  will hit the archives again this weekend if time allows. 

[talesofthesevenseas]

Thanks for looking!

I think the trick will be matching that letter "G" in front of the 925/1000. See how it has that funny "tail" on the front side of the G? I've never seen that before, so it seems like if we can find a "G 925/1000" hallmark with this style of letter G, we'll have the right maker/date.

[wendy177]

Tales did more digging and maybe you could contact Yale University Art Gallery P.O. Box 208271 New Haven, CT 06520-8271.
The Montgomery Prize, presented annually for "the most distinguished contribution to the study of American decorative arts published in the English language in the given year," was presented to the American Arts Office of the Yale University Art Gallery for Patricia E. Kane, ed., Colonial Massachusetts Silversmiths and Jewelers (New Haven, CT: Yale University Art Gallery, 1998). More than 70 years ago, Francis Hill Bigelow began to compile biographical information on Massachusetts silversmiths. With Bigelow's death in 1933, his notes were passed along to John Marshall Phillips, the curator of the Garvan Collection, who then added to them extensively during his career at the Yale Art Gallery.

Over the years many other scholars added to those files, resulting in a wealth of detailed information on silversmiths and their wares. Patricia Kane spearheaded a major publication effort by many scholars to compile this date in a single volume. Using the Bigelow-Phillips files as the foundation, Kane coordinated a team of scholars and graduate students who cross-checked information; combed court records, probate records, town records, genealogies, and manuscripts to identify silversmiths and flush out their lives; and secondary sources such as collection catalogues and auction catalogues to document all known objects and marks.
Maybe someone there  could  shed some light. http://artgallery.yale.edu/pages/collection/permanent/pc_american,php