Featured Did they really?

Number every one of these they made?

 

It sure looks like it. But why? Not a clue.

 

OMG. The lids are numbered too.

 

What are those Terry?

 

R2 units?

 

If these shakers were rolling off an assembly line....they may have needed to keep track of production...

 

You'll forgive me for asking - what are they??

 

Don't you folks see the holes on the top..........I say salt shakers !
or pepper !!

likely made for the hospitality trade....

 

vintage hotel S&P shakers.....




& silver ones......




they even had holders......for da fancy places.....



I have a set of these somewhere....



& these are at every antique show I've ever been to......




& just for effect......these are from the Hotel Windsor Melbourne.....




Terry's look like a lot from a closed hotel restaurant.....

 

Not hotelware, just regular individual shakers, if the holes are all the same size, may have been sold as pepperettes for use with open salts - cut below is from a 1916 Wallace catalog...

~Cheryl

 

Cheryl has come up with the answer! Here are 2 auctions for Wallace #85 shakers. At least 1 of the auctions is a 6 shaker set. None of them seem to be individually numbered.

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_odkw=&_dcat=39442&_osacat=39442&Maker=Wallace&_from=R40&_trksid=p2045573.m570.l1313.TR0.TRC0.H0.Xwallace+#85.TRS0&_nkw=wallace+#85&_sacat=39442

--- Susan

 

I believe Terry is referring to the numbers above the logo. 4th line up from 85. They are all different - 127, 229, 293,355,235 etc.

 

Hey Gals, you know I luv ya both ...but....

Shang & CX ask what they are, & I pretty much answered that already.

Terry asks if they numbered every one they made, & while I didn't answer that.....Lady did !

In the link you can see that an individual 6 pc boxed set has no consecutive numbering scheme.

On the other hand Dragons post seems to show a Wholesale catalog ( selling by the dozen & assorted with no boxes), where there's no mention or image of whether they are individually numbered or not.

So I stand by my observation that the ones sold for personal use were not numbered but the ones sold by the dozens in catalogs were for commercial use, and were numbered.

I'm willing to be proven wrong , but until then.......

PS. for 10 years I worked in the building housing the main office and store of Pascal Hardware. ( a famous Canadian brand ) Their Hotel Supplies Store was right across the street. I spent a lot of lunch hours hanging out in both.
That Wallace catalog is selling to the trade...not the general public.

 

Hotel pieces weren't usually Sterling, were they?

 

It is a wholesale catalog, like most other vendor catalogs of the era, and marketing to retailers rather than the hospitality trade, most companies had separate catalogs for their hotelware, with silverplate the standard for even the finest of establishments, as with the shakers shown from the Hotel Windsor Melbourne - in addition to the extra cost, sterling simply wouldn't hold up to heavy commercial use and cleaning.

I do find those numbers a bit puzzling - large households would sometimes number the silverware to keep track of it, but that seems unlikely in this case, and they were clearly struck at the factory since the same distinctive '5' punch was used. Perhaps some short-lived, time-wasting, management-ordered production monitoring...

~Cheryl

The cut below is from the same catalog, showing the sets '288' and '382' mentioned, for 12 and 6 piece peppers, in somewhat nicer boxes than the later S&P set shown in Susan's first link:

 

I have a total of 19 sets (28 pcs) of these little, impossible to polish, buggers, some cylindrical, some barrel shaped (2 slightly different sizes) and not a one has any number but for a model number.........

 

OK, so they're peppers , & may have at one time been cased , & made and sold only for household use.

Still, no certainty on the why or wherefore of the numbering, only that some were and some were not. ( & that answers Terry's question.)

Thanks for clearing that up Dragon.......I recant my earlier statement of observation.

 

Heh, they are a PITA to clean up, Mansons, especially the ones that were made of thin metal. Have handled a lot of them over the years, and still have a couple of sets of six, some pairs and several orphans - can't recall seeing any with numbers like that, but probably wouldn't have paid much attention on singles or pairs...

~Cheryl

 

I learned something today. Maybe.
Terry has 12 Wallace #75 sterling silver. Presumed S&Ps. Or maybe just Ss or just Ps.
For some strange reason the bases are numbered (sequentially?) with non recurring numbers. Maybe as was said - "Perhaps some short-lived, time-wasting, management-ordered production monitoring..." I'm sure we've all experienced that.

The tops are also numbered but it has not yet been revealed whether or not they resemble the base, or are even sequential.

Wallace had a catalog for the retailers, with no number 75 mentioned. Doubtful that their hospitality catalog had that either because sterling was rarely, if ever, used in eating establishments.

eBay will continue to have interesting listings that I shall probably never be able to figure out. Two as linked above, with Wallace S&Ps. One auction and one BIN. 6 pc's, auction style now at $10.49 with 2 days remaining. One BIN, 4 pc's at $75 OBO. Those are both Wallace 85, not 75.
I found that I should not have discarded my Wallace? 6 piece set because, after sitting in the original box for years it had corroded. 4-ANTIQUE-STERLING-SILVER-COBALT-BLUE-GLASS-SALT-PEPPER-SHAKERS - 271972240642 - sold for $41.00.
And it was more corroded than mine.

Terry, what do you have planned for yours?

 

They are #85. I think they are all peppers to go with open salts. It seems this is called a pepperette. Pepperettes sell better than 'individual salt and pepper' on feebay. The bottom serial numbers match the cap serial numbers (after I straightened them out).