Souvenir spoon: Miami Biscayne Bay Florida

1890-1910

Maker

Gorham Manufacturing Co. (1831-1986)
Greenleaf & Crosby Co., retailer (1896-1930)

Measurements

5-3-8 in x 1-1/8 in x 7/8 in

Materials

Silver

Credit Line

Historic Odessa Foundation, The David Wilson Mansion, Inc.

Accession Number

1971.1173

Inscription

“Miami Biscayne Bay Florida” in relief is on the handle.  “THE OLD / FLORIDA CAPE LIGHT” is in the bowl.  “Seminole Coffee Spoon” in relief is on the back of the handle.  “OSCEOLA” is on the back of the bowl.  The sides of the handle have Gorham touchmarks and STERLING” on one side and ‘GREENLEAF & CROSBY CO” on the other.

Provenance

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

Comments

This spoon is ladened with Florida references.  The flat-faced handle—the end of which angles downward—names Miami and Biscayne Bay.  The bowl features an image of the Cape Florida Lighthouse of 1825 near Key Biscayne. The back of the bowl features an imagined profile of Osceola (1804-1838), the Seminole who led the resistance against the United States during the Second Seminole War (1835-1842).  Osceola was captured under a false flag of truce and died in prison a year later. 

Reference to the “Seminole Coffee Spoon” on the back of the handle has not been identified.

Greenleaf & Crosby, a jeweler in Jacksonville, Florida, was founded in 1868.  It was incorporated in 1896 as Greenleaf & Crosby Co. and acquired by V.E. Jacobs Co. in 1930.

Bibliography

Accumulation & Display:  Mass Marketing Household Goods in America, 1880-1920 (The Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum, 1986), no. 194, pp. 140-141.