??AYRES PITTSBURGH Berry Spoon

[Aguest]

The only candidate I could find is Joel Sayres but he worked in New York and Connecticut?

[Aguest]

Englarge Sesame

[dragonflywink]

Not where I can check any references at the moment, but you might consider looking at 'Ayres' as a surname...

~Cheryl

[WesternPA]

There was a John Ayers working in Pittsburgh circa 1811-15, first in partnership with Benjamin Kendrick as Kendrick and Ayers circa 1811, and then alone. The spelling of Ayers would have been potentially variable then, and the spoon would belong to that period. Ayers was listed as a silverplater, as was the partnership, but he (or they) could have made and/or sold a limited amount of solid silver flatware. No other candidates on my lists for Pittsburgh, but perhaps someone else has a better thought. Great piece - I haven't seen that eagle head mark before!

[Aguest]

It could conceivably be "JOHNAYRES (eagle stamp) PITTSBURGH" because it looks like before the word AYRES there is room for 3 or 4 letters.
I'm trying to upload a pic of the bowl, but it is unlike any fruit spoon I have ever seen. Usually there are immediately recognizable fruits like pineapples and grape clusters and apples. What is strange here is, I can't identify this fruit. It might just be a crude representation of a generalization of a fruit.

There are tiny bright-cut enhancements done to the unknown fruit images inside the bowl.

This is one of the few American Coin Silver Berry Spoons that I have seen, and perhaps it will help with the history of Pennsylvanian Silversmiths in some way it could be a piece of the puzzle.

[Aguest]

Berry Enlargement

[Aguest]

John Ayres has a Pittsburgh address in 1815 and his occupation is listed as a Silver Plater.
According to my research, John Ayres moved to New York City and partnered with Stacy Pancoast around 1819 and started a silver plating business.
The historical chronicle insists on the spelling "AYRES" as no other variation was associated with the first name "JOHN".

According to the Museum of the City of New York, no works by Ayres & Pancoast have been recorded and perhaps no example has survived.

I suppose the question is, when John Ayres was listed in the Pittsburgh census as a "Silver Plater," were they using the old British term of "Silver Plate" as a person who works in high-grade sterling or coin-silver? I get the feeling that it was all coin silver until he went to New York City and began the method of fusing copper and silver that we know as "Silver Plate." But maybe I am wrong and he was actually producing silver-copper combinations in Pittsburgh. This would be a rare example of his coin silver work. I haven't tested its purity, but it just screams "coin-silver-or-higher."

Anyway, it is an interesting spoon, it is quirky and inventive and the letters on the hallmark are in a very individualistic style.

Is that an eagle in-between the words?

[Aguest]

I just read more history and it is actually what we know as "Silver Plating," the process of coating copper and metal with a tiny layer of silver.
In 1815, it looks like Kendrick was silver plating and John Ayres was silver plating, and from the way the sentence reads in the book from 1815 I read about navigating the Allegheny river, it looks like they had gone their separate ways by 1815 and were the two sources for silver-plated items in this region.

It seems as if we can give a date for this spoon in a very narrow range, most likely 1815-1818 because John Ayres was in New York City by 1819.

[Aguest]

The date gets even narrower, 1815 to 1817 because from 1817 to 1819 John Ayres (surname spelled Ayers in the history books) was a silversmith in Philadelphia with the firm Ayers & Warden, and it seems that this is the same John Ayres that worked prior in Pittsburgh and later in New York City.

[dragonflywink]

Personally, not sure I'd want to firmly attribute the mark, especially being partially obscured, without quite a bit of research, and consultation with those familiar with Pennsylvania silversmiths...

The decoration looks like perhaps figs and currants, with maybe some cherries at the top. Have seen quite a few coin fruit spoons over the years, and a few later pieces may have been original, but most, as this one almost certainly was, were altered or 'berried' well after their original manufacture, and were unlikely to have been done by that maker.

~Cheryl

[Aguest]

Yes, I have been researching all the AYERS and AYRES, and I have not reached a conclusion yet until more experts give their opinions.
There is no way to know what is before the surname, it is completely obliterated. We will never know for certain.

I've not yet found a piece of "Kendrick and Ayres" from the partnership of 1810-1814, but perhaps if a piece were found this could be a reference point of some sort.

[Traintime]

For reference, some information on the use of right facing (tufted?) eagle head bearing in mind late-Colonial New York source: viewtopic.php?f=38&t=27979&p=68375&hilit=eagle+colonial#p68375

[Traintime]

[Everyone seems to back up to New Jersey] Tracking William Kendricks history, leads to more Ayres connections and ultimately (in that family) back to a John B. Ayres mentioned. Is this John B. Ayres in the legal mess here the same John (?): http://freepages.rootsweb.com/~silversm ... 121880.htm

[Traintime]

The William Kendrick history that ties him to Elias Ayers and indirectly connecting to John B. Ayers: https://kentuckyonlinearts.wordpress.co ... ky-silver/