Description:
Silver tablespoon (unmarked) with a pointed oval bowl, long coffin-end handle, and decorated with neoclassical-style bright-cut engraving down the length of the spoon, which is engraved "RWS" in script on the front of the handle. This spoon is part of a collection of silver spoons from the Viola Wilby estate. An attached paper tag reads: "Rhoda W. Smith / (d.1810) / Allen House / 1780" and "5" in a circle on one side, and "M. 1807 Henry / Bardwell / (one of 4) / Lived in Bardwell Stebbins House" on the other. this spoon was owned by Rhoda W. Smith (1765-1818), the daughter of Reuben Smith of Northfield, Massachusetts, who married Henry Bardwell (1767-1827) of Deerfield in 1807 and lived in the Allen House on Main Street. According to a handwritten list of family objects in the file by Elizabeth Hawks Wells (1845-1938), the wife of George Merritt Wells (1839-1883) of Deerfield: "The four tablespoons marked 'R.W.S' meaning 'Rhoda W. Smith' belonged to Catherine Bardwell Allen whose Bardwell home was the house now owned by Frances and Mary Alllen who made many beautiful photographs of hills and valleys of this picturesque place."
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+2009.26.12 |
