Souvenir spoon: Canadian Pacific Railway

c. 1891

Maker

Roden Brothers Ltd (1891-1953)

Measurements

4-3/8 in x 7/8 in x 1/2 in

Materials

Gold-washed silver and enamel

Credit Line

Historic Odessa Foundation, The David Wilson Mansion, Inc.

Accession Number

1971.1180

Inscription

"CANADIAN / PACIFIC / RAILWAY” is on the handle tip.  “STR.EMPRESS OF INDIA AT DOCKS / VANCOUVER, B.C.” is in the bowl.  The back of the handle has two touchmarks before “STERLING.”

Provenance

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

Comments

The Canadian Pacific Railway, named in the red shield at the end of the handle, offered transcontinental travel between Montreal and Vancouver beginning in 1886.  It commenced ocean liner service in 1891 with the steamer RMS Empress of India, which is pictured in the bowl.  The luxury passenger ship first docked in Vancouver on April 28, 1891, and regularly sailed from there to Hong Kong.  Its speed earned it the RMS (Royal Mail Service) designation.  It was sold in late 1914 and scrapped in 1923. 

The souvenir spoon was likely produced to celebrate the 1891 Vancouver arrival and departure.  The beaver atop the shield with the Canadian Pacific name is a Canadian symbol of industriousness.

Bibliography

Accumulation & Display:  Mass Marketing Household Goods in America, 1880-1920 (The Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum, 1986), no. 176, p. 135.