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These sugar tongs are made by Reed & Barton and somewhat resemble their Renaissance multi-motif pattern, but they do not match up with Replacement's image of the sugar tongs in that pattern. The pattern features a face or mask.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

I believe this is it .
Renaissance by Reed & Barton, Silverplate Sugar Tongs, Small, Active Pattern: No, Circa: 1886, Size: 3-1/4"

Thank you for the reply.

I looked at the Renaissance pattern, but here is an image of the sugar tongs from that pattern:



What I have is most likely a bon bon tongs (3 1/4"), which I cannot find a photo of. But the imagery on these bon bon tongs doesn't seem to match up with imagery from any other pieces from the Renaissance pattern.

After some polishing, I noticed that after the Reed & Barton marking, there is a "2" and a cross (similar to a plus sign). Previously, I had thought it was "24". My guess is that it would have something to do the quality of silverplating. Not sure if this means anything, but I thought I would add it.

Compare face to mustached man on this plate: https://restaurantwarecollectors.com/RW ... le=Griffin

That company happens to have been a known user of Rennaisance pattern. Could there been something in that? A big stretch at this point.

As to number & cross...Rockford Silver Plate Co. placed on flatware their number (troy ounces used to plate per gross) before a six-point version of a mullet (an actual star seen on most pieces probably came later?). So this might just be an innocuous symbol rather than an actual plus sign.

There is no image of it, but the Italian pattern's sugar tongs are the same length as my piece -- 3-3/8". This pattern is my best guess so far. I have found images of my piece through a Google search labeled as Renaissance, but based upon the photos from Replacements, I'm almost positive it's not Renaissance.

I'll keep searching for an image of the Italian sugar tongs.

Thanks.

Could it be a case of a non-flatware design found only on holloware? If the tongs were only available in a set with the bowl, then there's no guarantee of a match to flatwares.

I thought that might be the case as well, but I was hoping not.