Featured Some of my spoons

Nothing as nice as those shared by https://www.antiquers.com/members/dragonflywink.111/, but here are some of my favorites:



Souvenirs of Omaha, with a lovely handle and gold-washed bowl, and of Aberdeen, South Dakota. I love the daylily handle! And then three from Lookout Mountain/Chattanooga.

 

And these:



A Yukon souvenir with a gold nugget on the handle, and a Doughboy of the 29th Division, with which my grandfather served in WW1 as Division Judge Advocate. The 29th Div. spoon is a little beat up, but it was my favorite when I was a wee thing, and it got a lot of use!

 

the yin - yang is an interesting touch..!

 

The insignia of his grandfather's division...

~Cheryl

 

Nice, Frank! Always nice to see others' spoons!

I love spoons in general (even have a nice collection of carved wooden spoons, mostly Norwegian), but actually started a souvenir spoon addiction as a teenager. One of the interesting things about their manufacture is that often the handles and bowls were struck separately, so the Watson Lookout Mountain bowls would have been soldered to the #1044 (Squaw) handles for the Chattanooga market. The addition of little enamel plaques like on your Charles M. Robbins soldier (design patented in 1917) was also a way to make the souvenir specific, there is an entwined 'USA' under the insignia, and how wonderful to have a souvenir of your grandfather's service.

The Watson Straker-designed enamel orange spoon (#883, Orange Blossom) is lovely, Shepard produced similar designs - more common to find the oranges on Florida and California souvenirs (there was an enamel 'Corn' design available). The pierced Alvin Easter Lily was part of a birth-flower series, the '4' for April, I have the #5 in my lily of the valley collection.

Gotta love the Canadian Roden Bros. gold nugget spoon, I have an American mining spoon with tiny nuggets in a pan and an Alaskan spoon with a nugget in the center of a carved ivory bunchberry blossom - with the price of gold now, there's a bit of intrinsic value there...

~Cheryl

 

Great spoons! I love souvenir spoons and really like the one with the nugget.

I have a large collection of souvie spoons that I became interested in collecting as a result of selling a collection on ebay for a client. I didn't buy any of those, but I started collecting my own. And a little later, found 5 in the stuff from my mother. My only regret is that I sold this one (after finding it for $40). But I got $300 for it. These are the only photos I have left. Souvenir of New Orleans Black Americana "Picking Cotton" enamel and gold washed spoon. It had so much going for it, both front and back, including the Robt E Lee monument, which has been removed. Still kicking my own a$$ for selling it.

 

If anyone wants to help, I'm looking for spoons that show Glaciers from back in the day which have since melted away. I check ebay from time to time but lately, there's nothing.

 

But a joy to look at, and love the little gold nugget on the spoon. Talk about the local touch. Thank you for sharing.

 

Great spoon, understand the regret, but Black Americana always sells well, especially with enameled bowls - I've sold pieces I wish I hadn't, but it paid the mortgage. Watson made variants of the design for various cities and states, the fancy border on the bowl was used specifically for the enamel. I have seven Black Americana spoons, none as nice as yours, all depicting young men, I find them beautiful and an historic reminder, but seldom mention them since, years ago, a visitor to my home shamed me for displaying them, also mentioning the swastikas on my 'Good Luck' spoons (they all remained on display and she was never invited back).

~Cheryl

 

Nice collection. I just sold a demitasse spoon from a hotel in Helsinki, Finland. I thought I'd printed the wrong label when it was addressed to Illinois but the buyer paid $35! Turns out the address is an international shipper and the spoon is going back to Finland.

 

This insignia is still in use today. The 29th Division was called the "Blue and Gray" as it was formed in WW1 from state regiments from the north and south, in some cases regiments that had fought each other in the Civil War.

 

The best decision.

 

You've given me a wealth of information on these. Stand by, I may have to share the rest of my spoons!

 

I don't have any Black Americana spoons, but I have several that depict homes or event or locations associated with the Civil War, including some Battle of Lookout Mountain spoons, and Stonewall Jackon's birthplace.

 

Whenever I'm reminded of her, can only think of a female dog - struck me as incredibly rude to question my values, not just to me, but other guests as well, while enjoying my hospitality, eating my food, drinking my liquor, and lounging by my pool...

~Cheryl

 

Hehe, no problem - I have a bit of knowledge in the area and a good reference library.

Many souvenir spoons are historically interesting, researching them over the years has been part of the appeal for me...


~Cheryl

 

Not sure my wording made it clear that your 'Omaha' spoon was intended for eating oranges, likely the reason for the motif...

~Cheryl

 

Exactly. You don't need people like that in your life.

Just 'a bit'.
You are a true expert, as always.

 

For years, I assumed they were peaches, and wondered it Omaha had peach orchards.

 

Thank you, that sentiment makes me feel a lot better. As an ebay seller, there were a lot of items I would have loved to keep, but couldn't afford to give up the money, like the service for 8 of Haviland Baltimore Rose china with serving pieces. I can see why the S. Koreans love it so much. Someone I know offered me $100 for the covered butter dish with drainer. I told her she could bid on it. Of course, it went out for considerably more than a C note.