Souvenir spoon: American flag

c. 1890

Measurements

4-1/2 in x 7/8 in x 5/8 in

Materials

Gold-washed silver and enamel

Credit Line

Historic Odessa Foundation, The David Wilson Mansion, Inc.

Accession Number

1971.1150

Inscription

“925.S” is stamped into the back of the bowl near the handle.

Provenance

Ex coll. Mrs. E. Tatnall (Mary Corbit) Warner

Comments

This spoon likely celebrates the several states added to the Union in 1889 and 1890.  The handle tip displays and eagle with an America shield. The bowl has an American flag. That flag has white stripes where red belong and vice versa.  Also, a leafy sprig partially covers a row of stars, leaving 38 visible.  The 38-star flag had a blue field with five rows of stars, not forming a perfect square, but not off-center as on the spoon.

The 38-star flag was adopted in 1877 after Colorado became a state on August 1, 1876.  In 1890 the flag acquired more stars after North and South Dakota, Montana, and Washington joined in 1889, and Idaho and Wyoming joined in 1890.  Given the somewhat uncertain circumstances of when the states might join the Union, the spoon design may have represented a kind of artistic maneuver around the problem.