Souvenir Spoon Manufacturer P. E. K. & ? Question

[silverly]

I've seen this manufacturer's trademark, but for now I can't place it. Don't know anything about P. E. K. other than having seen it on more than one souvenir spoon. Any help will be very much appreciated.

[dragonflywink]

Hi - the fleur-de-lis in triangle is an old Joseph Mayer mark (can be found in Rainwater). The 'P.E.K.' mark, found on souvenir spoons of various age and quality, with and without Mayer marks, remains a mystery to me - perhaps a retailer?

~Cheryl

[silverly]

The idea of a retailer’s mark for P. E. K. crossed my mind too, and I will keep looking for an explanation.Thank you for the Joseph Mayer mark identification. As always, you are amazing.

[whitereality]

My grandmother was a spoon collector. She had this one. She told me it was from the 1870s.

[Aguest]

:::: The Gorham Polar Expedition Souvenir Spoon was patented in 1897 and there was a surge of polar expedition interest around this time due to the voyage of Dr. Nansen to the North Pole, there was an incident with a walrus attacking kayaks, and there was a polar bear attack, the PEK spoon may have been inspired by the popular account of Dr. Nansen and seems to be more like 1900-1910, the Gorham Polar Expedition Souvenir Spoon is the earliest spoon featuring an ice-musher with a dogsled (correct me if I'm wrong) so I think all similar spoons are post-1897. :::::

::::: There's an extremely similar spoon with the Mayer hallmark of record also with a dogsled but these seem to be more associated with the Alaskan gold rush and have gold-rush town names like Juneau etcetera. :::::

[Aguest]

::::: One last thing that has been troubling me about the P.E.K. spoon: Let's say that the P.E.K. hallmark is actually a retail mark. When was the last time you saw a retailers mark actually cast into the spoon design itself? ::::: So was there an exclusive retailer for this spoon? Or perhaps the P.E.K. retailer actually paid for the design of the spoon or was so important such that the P.E.K. hallmark was actually cast into the spoon along with the manufacturer hallmark and the STERLING hallmark? ::::::

::::: Now I've found another Mayer Bros. Alaska spoon design with "H.D.K" cast into the spoon :::::

::::: I have no idea what it means but these letters were important enough to be cast into these different spoon designs. :::::

[silverly]

Not finding anything new about the marks but here are some more images that should be better:

[Aguest]

:::::: "Emigrated from Germany and established a business in Seattle, Washington, in about 1895. Albert and Marcus moved to Dawson City, Yukon, in 1897 during the Gold Rush there and opened a jewelry store" so I'm guessing that a lot of Alaska souvenir spoons were sold when they moved to Dawson City, Yukon & also if they were originally called Empire Jewelry Company ("The original business was known as Empire Jewelry Company") then is it possible that this hallmark is for "Empire Jewelry Company" before they incorporated as "Joseph Mayer & Bros" circa 1898, maybe? :::::

::::: Perhaps Empire Jewelry Company was never legally incorporated, but still it would need to establish a hallmark for its wares sold 1895-1898 before the Joseph Mayer & Bros company was officially incorporated? :::::

[silverly]

Thank you Augest. Just came back from Alaska. Saw some of the depictions on this spoon but sadly not all.

[Traintime]

Two marks both ending in “K.”…what’s the chance this stands for Klondike?

[buffalorobert]

P.E.K. was Peter E. Kern.
H.D.K. was Herman D. Kirmse.
Both were jewelers in Skagway, Alaska in the early 1900's. They were not related, but their stores were almost across the street from each other. Kern sold out to Kirmse in 1910. Kirmse himself died in 1912 in a freak accident. Kirmse's widow ran the store for another 50 years, until 1962. One of their sons ran the store for 15 more years, until 1977. The business was sold out of the family in 1977. By then, the Kirmse family had owned the business for a total of 80 years. I don't know whether the Kirmse-initialed spoons were made after 1912, after Herman's death. But by World War I, the Kirmse store was no longer selling them.

[dognose]

Hi buffalorobert,

Welcome to the Forum.

Many thanks for adding this information, it is appreciated.

Trev.

[silverly]

Thank you buffalorobert. Now that you’ve given me the name, I have been able find out quite a bit about Peter E Kern. He seems to have been very enterprising and successful during his decade or so in Skagway.