Souvenir spoon: Golden Gate
North Attleboro, Massachusetts
1896-1905
Maker
Mechanics Silver Co. (1896-c. 1911), a subsidiary of Watson & Newell Co.
Measurements
5-5/8 in x 1-1/4 in x 1 in
Materials
Silver
Credit Line
Historic Odessa Foundation, The David Wilson Mansion, Inc.
Accession Number
1971.1085
Inscription
“GOLDEN GATE / SAN FRANCISCO” is on the bowl; “CALIFORNIA” is in a banner on the handle.
“EUREKA” and “1849” are on the back of the handle. “STERLING” and a touchmark of a pennant with an “H” inside are on the handle near the bowl.
Provenance
Ex coll. Mrs. E. Tatnall (Mary Corbit) Warner
Comments
The spoon bowl shows an imaginary representation of San Francisco Bay with a setting sun behind a sailboat and a three-story building to the left. (See spoon 1971.1052 for comparison.) The handle displays a bear at the tip (an early symbol of the State of California) and a panel below with a stage coach inside it. A banner with “CALIFORNIA” is above grapes and grape leaves.
On the back of the handle, a figure of Minerva, adapted from the state seal, is below “EUREKA” and above “1849” that evoke the gold rush. Below, a gold miner stands with a pick ax.
The Mechanics Silver Co. was formed in 1896 as a subsidiary of Watson & Newell Co.
A touchmark near the “STERLING” mark is a pennant with an “H” inside, which follows a trade mark of Watson & Newell Co. printed in a 1903 catalogue.
Bibliography
Accumulation & Display: Mass Marketing Household Goods in America, 1880-1920 (The Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum, 1986), no. 206, p. 146.
