The Story Behind this Blog

Being from the South, Silver is a very big part of my life. It doesn't have anything to do with wealth. Although those with more money - old money, tend to have more of it. New money tend not to spend their money on Silver. They do not have the appreciation for the warmth of the metal, the beauty of the patina, the story it tells of the generations past who have used it. A true southern girl comes of age when she chooses her silver pattern, long before she chooses her mate. If she is smart, she chooses that of her mother, grandmother, or favorite great aunt who in their benevolence will pass their silver on to her. It is the pieces in those sets, the pieces on our tables, along with the pieces we find in the corners of the displays in antique stores that prompted me to start this blog. They are beautiful, they are odd, but what are they, and what in the hell do you do with them?

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Wild Rose by Watson

Another pattern designed for Watson by  Eustace Crees & Charles S. Court, Wild Rose was introduced sometime between 1900 and 1905. This design is very much like their Orchid design for Watson. There is a wide open rose bloom on the terminal with a rose vine with leaves and buds gracefully trailing down the stem ending with three leaves delicately placed on the shoulder.

 Fork (7 3/4 inches)



Knife (9 1/2 inches)



Fish Server


Pie Knife (8 5/8 inches)
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2 comments:

  1. AnonymousAugust 13, 2013 at 8:00 PM

    There are actually two versions of this pattern. On one (see the piece entitled "Fish Server" above) the tendrils emerging from the center of the rose are fewer, much simpler and the dots at end of the tendrils more pronounced than the other (all other pieces above). Unfortunatley the pictures are not detailed enough to show this well. Over the years (23 and counting since I first became interested) I have seen each of these different versions in everything from place pieces and knives to servers of all kinds. I wondered why this was for the longest time but once encountered a turn of the century Sears catalog and in the silver section there was shown the simpler (i.e. Fish Slice above) version, sold as Wild Rose, not identified as Watson, but unmistakably so. So - one pattern for the Sears catalog crowd and another for the carriage trade? - Just a theory of mine.

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  2. AnonymousAugust 13, 2013 at 8:16 PM

    I also believe that the original patent picture registered with the US Patent Office for this pattern under the name of the artists who created it, Crees & Court, is the "simpler' version I refer to above.

    Crees & Court was also a British metalworking firm and I believe the successor organization is Arthur Court, which still produces metalware serveware to this day. Large semi- naturalistic aluminum ? pewter? things. They're around if you look.

    But the real credit for all these wonderful patterns goes not to the designers but to the die sinkers, names forever lost, who carved this pattern and all the others, backwards, into steel to create the pressing molds. Unbelievable skill. Could anyone do this today?

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