Reed & Barton Cocktail Pitcher: date?

[themichaelfrank]

Hey all,
I've come across pages with the various picture-symbols that R&B had used to indicate the production year on a piece, though havent been able to find what just an "X" was used for, or if its a year mark? Did I miss it?

Thanks!

[Traintime]

"X" marks turn up occasionally on marked commercial wares (hotel/restaurant) and unmarked items, usually weighty, that may have extra plating for heavy duty useage. Here is an example under Morrison Hotel by Victor Silver Company used by the hotel division of International Silver....R&B was also a big player in such lines: viewtopic.php?f=38&t=43307&p=185807&sid=06300806d9f98adc63d37da5e8407a39#p185807

[themichaelfrank]

@traintime Thanks! That is a solid guess, Ima go with it :)

How I ended up finding this excellent board was through the researching of vintage and antique cocktail/barware gear. So that estimate of the X being an indication of extra plated is consistent with it's weight. This weighs in at a serious 2lbs 3oz. Where a typical 9.5” stainless steel three-piece cocktail shaker weighs 10oz as a comparison.

The style of this pitcher shaker overall, the handle shape more specifically with the cork stopper is very typically early 20th century, pre-Prohibition. It's missing its stopper at the pour spout which also would have been silverplate with a cork plug. Based on it's style, shape, the "18" could be the year of production.

I love the Joe from Jiggs engraving.
It makes me imagine that Jiggs and Joe may have been a barmen somewhere like the Stanley Hotel or maybe a bartender in a beautiful pullman-private-railroad-car.

(admin edit - see Posting Requirements )

I don't post a lot here, but always reading and learning! Cheers, Michael

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[Traintime]

Interesting...Joe Yule played the Jiggs role in movies. The Jiggs comic strip character dates back to c.1912, but the pitcher could be much later...once designed, they could produce something as long as the tooling held out. R&B maintained quality work all along.

[Traintime]

The link seems to be down, but R&B used only picto-symbols to represent years, only beginning in 1928. The "18" is where you would normally see an item/inventory/stock/catalog/pattern number on the wares.