Tale 'o Two Spoons

PHOTOS REQUIRED - marks + item
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Traintime
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Tale 'o Two Spoons

Post by Traintime »

Dumb luck plays a great role here. In an unplanned, spur of the moment stop today, a bucket of silverware yielded the top spoon in the 1903- Westfield pattern by International Silver and backmarked for Southern Pacific (Railroad) Company. Otherwise, I might have ignored the salt spoon and something revealing. It is Reed & Barton's 1914- Sierra pattern and backmarked for Union Pacific System in Script. As part of the joint Harriman Roads, both "S.P. Co." and "U.P.R.R." can be found in script on Westfield. Around 1913-14, a court decree broke up the lines and "U.P. System" (script) also surfaces on Westfield. At some point, Sierra was adopted by U.P. and the script System mark continued. until again replace with U.P.R.R. (script). Luckily, this salt spoon was also back marked "PAT.APPLD FOR", thus confirming the transition to a new pattern occured around the time of the company separations, say about c.1913-15. The "U.P. System" mark was worn at the end, but just readable enough to take it home and figure this out. If anyone knows the actual patent granted date for Sierra, this may narrow the timeline as the maker's patented marks should have soon changed to an actual date.

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