www.925-1000.com

Okay; I misunderstood your reply. To your last, Charles Jewett Wingate and Frederick Wingate were 1st cousins, once removed.

Daddy Winnie's work

Who is this? Frederick's father was not a smith, that I know of.

It is hard to make out from your mark image, but check the G -- in Frederick's mark, it is noticeably below the line

He is listed as an artist in the 1860 census, watch maker in 1870, and farmer in 1880.

All I have seen is this entry (which I have truncated) in Goodspeed Publishing's History of Tennessee , 1886: HILL, James Bryan ; jeweler of Fayetteville, Tenn ., was born 6 June 1832 in Fayetteville. Lincoln County, Tenn.: son of Ebenezer and Mary Tate (Bryan) Hill. . . He was educated in the schoo...

I have seen this mark several times on pieces with a Massachusetts (or at least New England) provenance. I am also inclined to John Beckford Hill of Beverly. He was the largest jeweler/watchmaker in the area and was in business for 60 years. I added him and his son to my project a while ago, but hav...

It is likely a journeyman's mark from the shop of whoever Conning was buying his flatware stock from -- Wood & Hughes was one of his major suppliers, but there were undoubtedly others.

While I feel pretty steady on American marks, my knowledge of English makers is best described as rudimentary. This is a set of 4 3/4" spoons, all identical in size, decoration, and monogram. One is marked for 1783 by Robert Cruickshank, while the other five are only marked with a lion and what...

Henry Tyler Brown (1830-1893), Providence RI. He was in various partnerships, then on his own as H. T. BROWN & Co, 1875-1880.

They were the sons of the Samuel Bell you mentioned.

Please disregard my previous -- missed the reference to a San Antonio origin.

Bell & Brothers (David Bell, Powhatan Bell, and Jessup M. Bell), San Antonio, 1860-1889.

George R. Bell, Elliot Bell, John E. Bell and Charles O.R. Bell, Ogdensburg NY c 1870

sometimes taking home a hotel spoon ends up preserving history, not that I would ever. . .

The most likely candidate is Henry Gooding

Compare his primary mark shown to yours

In 1838 the former hotel closed and the contents were sold at auction.

Mt. Washington House in South Boston was a resident home of the Massachusetts Asylum for the Blind c 1840

A clean drive of the Brothers punch


and one showing the clipped terminal S from a broken punch

silverly wrote:

wev wrote:George Washington French

If his son George Herbert French who was the informant on his death certificate is to be believed, the name was George William French.

You are right -- I shouldn't type while chewing gum at the same time -- no ability to edit a post doesn't help either.

Elton Ira Franklin and his brother-in-law George Washington French were the owners. Franklin died in 1899 at age 52.