Description: Silver ladle with a tipped fiddle-end handle, chamfered shoulders, and deep oval bowl, which is marked "F. CURTIS" in a rectangle for Frederick Curtis. Frederick Curtis started sometime in 1834 in Hartford at 1 Asylum Street, and manufactured silverware and spectacles. About 1846, Curtis bought the buildings and land for his company in an area of Glastonbury. In 1848, Curtis officially went into partnership with his brother, Joseph S. Curtis, calling the company, F. Curtis & Co. Frederick Curtis‘s silver manufacturing company is considered the first to manufacture German silver (Nickel silver) in the country. An account book kept by the Curtisville (area of Glastonbury now known as Naubuc) company records employee names, hours, wages, and types of tableware produced. Also included are the production records of finishers. At the time the records begin, January 1852, there were 40 production employees.On 18 September 1854, the company was reorganized under the name of Curtisville Manufacturing Co. By 1857 the region occupied by the manufactory was called Curtisville, with its own post-master. During the Civil War, Curtis sold to the Connecticut Arms and Manufacturing Company.
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