My Resources on Hand

The first thing we did was look through our resources at the museum to see if we had any relevant texts. We had a few, and some have been more useful than others as I work my way through this donation. In order of relevance to this project, they are as follows:


Woodhead, Eileen. 1991. Trademarks on Base-Metal Tableware. Ottawa, Canada: National Historic Sites Parks Service Environment Canada.

This extensive, alphabetically arranged index of makers of Britannia metal, iron, steel, copper alloys, and silver-plated goods has been indispensable. Though primarily concerned with late 18th century to early 20th century companies, for this project, its short synopses and reliable dates have been extremely helpful as many pieces in this donation are dating between 1900 and 1950.


Tompkins, George & Carolyn. 1987. The Handbook of Gorham Open Salt Dishes. Rockport, Maine: Archimedes Press.

Despite the fact that there are no open salt dishes in this donation, never mind Gorham ones, this resource has been quite helpful as the donation does include several examples of other types of hollowware made by the Providence-based Gorham Manufacturing Company. Of special interest to the museum given our mutual location in Providence, these pieces each bear blessedly clear pictorial year marks (or letter year marks pre 1885). A table of these marks is reproduced on p. 32 of this manual along with an explanation of their dating system and six pages of black and white photos depicting several examples of other markings used over the years.


Meriden Britannia Co., The. 1982. The Meriden Britannia Silver-Plate Treasury: The Complete Catalogue of 1886-7. New York, NY: Dover Publications Inc.

Though this resource predates most of the pieces in the collection, this gorgeous Dover Publishing reproduction contains 3,200 illustration of all Meriden's gold and silver plated goods from that time period in addition to their entire line of 1847 Rogers Bros. flatware. It was helpful to see full tea services from this time period to help distinguish between teapots, coffee pots, and chocolate pots. We do have one Meriden manufactured creamer from "The Northfield" in the donation, but I have yet to locate it in the catalogue; perhaps it is a later model.


Wyler, Seymour B. 1937. The Book of Old Silver. New York, NY: Crowne Publishers Inc.

A great resource for English, American and Foreign silver makers pre 1850 or so, containing all available hallmarks from that time including Sheffield plate marks and extensive information on the development of the silversmith industry in each area. Unfortunately this resources pre-dates the pieces in this donation, and I've been unable to get much use out of it.