Souvenir spoon: Stockbridge, Mass.
Providence, Rhode Island
Patented July 14, 1891
Maker
Howard Sterling Co. (1878-1902)
Measurements
4-1/4 x 7/8 x 5/8
Materials
Silver
Credit Line
Historic Odessa Foundation, The David Wilson Mansion, Inc.
Accession Number
1971.1046
Inscription
“1734. / STOCKBRIDGE, / MASS. / 1877” is in relief on the inside of the bowl.; “STERLING” and “PAT. JULY 14 ‘91” are on the underside of the handle.
Provenance
Ex coll. Mrs. E. Tatnall (Mary Corbit) Warner
Comments
The spoon features a stern-faced Indian in full feather headdress, presumably a representation of a Stockbridge Indian. The Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohican Indians lived in Stockbridge at the time of Western European settlement in 1734, a date on the spoon. The other date, 1877, is when a monument inscribed "Ancient Burial Place / of the / Stockbridge Indians / 1734 / The Friends of Our Fathers / 1877."" was erected.
Identification of the maker rests on the four-leaf clover-like touchmark.
