Reed & Barton Sugar Tongs Unknown Pattern

[hpidaves]

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!

[Synfulto]

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

[hpidaves]

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.

[hpidaves]

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.

[Traintime]

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.

[hpidaves]

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.

[Traintime]

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.

[hpidaves]

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