Helping to identify Gorham silverware
Re: Helping to identify Gorham silverware
Thanks a lot for your help!
Re: Helping to identify Gorham silverware
A follow up on Durgin codes--A sample teaspoon in 1911 Essex pattern with Durgin "D", thence code "H", word "STERLING", lastly "PAT'D". In addition is stamped retailer "GALE FORD CO.". From a 1909 naval source advert., Gale-Ford Co. was a jeweler operating at 221 Granby Street, Norfolk Virginia. [Obviously naval personnel were targeted customers.] The spoon has no personalization, so we can't call it a custom order. However, it seems likely that the jeweler had specifically ordered this pattern by weight and thus it was coded as a guarantee. (I have not looked into the full history of the retailer, but I would expect the item was made around the era that the pattern was originated...roughly pre-WWI.)