This item was produced by William Keyser Vanderslice of San Francisco, California.
He began working in San Francisco in 1858 and died in 1899.
The firm was sold to Shreve & Company in 1908 after the great San Francisco earthquake of 1906.
My estimate of the height is between 4 and 5 inches ( 10.16 and 12.7 cm.).
What was it used for ?
Are these dates correct? The information I’ve been finding indicates that Vanderslice was sold to Shreve & Co. in 1897 and was operated by that firm until the San Francisco disaster of April 1906, whereupon it was discontinued. (Sutter Street, where it was located last, was essentially wiped clean by the fires. Photographs show nothing but empty frames standing in that zone.)
Checked this against Silver In The Golden State. Footnote 14 relates to an 1896 source. But then footnote 15 refers to 3 sources that begin in 1906 and end in 1909. That’s a big gap which they have filled in with information that has none if the references layed out. For 1896, they refer to W.K Vanderslice & Co.. After the giving his death in 1899 (footnote 13), they go on to say, “His business was to survive him for a time, under various owners, mostly as a fancy goods store.” No name changes are listed. But for November 1908, they relay this announcement…”SHREVE & CO. WILL ABSORB OLD FIRM. W. K. Vanderslice Company will be taken Over Immediately after the holidays.” The stock sell-off came in January with the store closed. Then Shreve continued to use the name on their invoices for a few years. So, there’s no clear explanation of when the firm name dropped the ampersand between 1896 and 1908. While they do discuss the insurance settlement for equipment, there is no explanation of how someone could run a store that should have been entirely gutted by fire in 1906. And where did this final “stock” come from? Vanderslice himself seems to have been in pretty bad shape from the 1893 fall through the stroke in late 1895, and his demise in early 1899. (The workforce had already been severely reduced.) All of which makes for rather murky waters in trying to understand who was actually running this operation and what marks would have been used in those days.
