I.S Co.: "INSICO"- Matson Navigation

[Traintime]

Labeled "Matsonia Pattern" for china and glassware versions, this Matson Navigation Company topmarked logo is on an unidentified International Silver flatware pattern (or one of the component concerns). TIA.

[dognose]

Hi Traintime,

I've seen it described as 'Reed and Acanthus' or 'Sussex', hopefully another will confirm/deny.


Here's one Matson ship your knife didn't come from:

The Gorham Co. are making the silverware for the new $2,000,000 steamship Moani of the Matson Navigation Co., to ply between San Francisco and Honolulu.

Source: The Hotel Monthly - June 1916

Trev.

[Traintime]

Thanks Trev.-This logo turns out to be "Lurline" rather than "Matsonia" (older and w/o circles). I was able to determine from a known bowl that I.S. Co. made this reed & acanthus pattern for Matson circa 1931. "Sussex" has been applied to the flatware. As to Gorham, they also made an item with this logo and a similar pattern but the photos were not easy to read for a date code symbol. It may be a cross shape, but 1886 seems out of line (the source was estimating circa 1930). (Names of commercial sources are withheld in accordance with site rules here.)

[Traintime]

From A Century of Silver 1847---1947 Connecticut Yankees and a Noble Metal by Earl Chapin May (International Silver Company advance complimentary copy of 1st edition): page 284-5......"While the Hotel Division was servicing one steamship line with 56,000 silverware pieces, a large portion to be used on two mammoth ships, it was also equipping the Lalola, Mariposa, Monterrey and Lurline of the Matson Lines with International silver to sail the seas as far as Asia and Australia". [It should be pointed out that while the latter three ships were constructed/outfitted between 1930 and 1932, the "Malola" was built in 1927 as a fast ship. It could have been a mis-spelling of the name for May's list.]

[Traintime]

Additional maker: Matson was responsible for the building of the second Royal Hawaiian Hotel which opened in 1927. Known as the Pink Palace, it was located along the shoreline in Waikiki but may have simply used Honolulu when describing the location in the early years. This might cause confusion since the original Hawaiian Hotel was located inside Honolulu circa 1872 and was soon renamed Royal Hawaiian Hotel. It also used a shield device very similar to the one that Matson employed on their hotel. One clue to the silverplate maker carries the Reed & Barton name with the torch symbol date code which corresponds to 1929. In short, we know that R&B did manufacture for the second hotel, but this does not rule out possible production for the earlier location (which became a YMCA operation). The actual supplier is not known, however it is possible that any mark found on china may reveal this..if and when an authentic sample is found. Matson Steam Navigation obviously used Gorham hollowares (flatwares have not been established) prior to the shift to International Silver in the latter half of the 1920’s, so why the hotel went with Reed & Barton is not clear. Nothing has established any Matson sway over the original hotel, but who knows what may surface. If there was an earlier relationship with R&B, perhaps they chose to continue with them?