Description:
Silver ladle with a gold-washed, double-spouted bowl and a curved, downturned reeded handle with shaped foliated tip. The front of the bowl has the engraved inscription: "Punch Set / Presented to / Mrs. C. S. Williams / from the Class of 1904 / U.S. Naval Academy / April 4 1903." The donor, Captain Edgar Miller Williams (1889-1986), was the son of Admiral Clarence Stewart Williams (1863-1951) who married Anna M. Miller (1860-1955), the daughter of Dr. J. M. Miller of Springfield, Ohio, in 1888; his grandfather was Orson Bennet Williams (1834-1912), who was born in Ashfield and married Pamelia L. Floyd of Springfield, Ohio, in 1862; his great-grandfather was Samuel Barnard Williams (1803-1884) of Deerfield who married Mary A. Bennet (d.1839) of Ashfield, Massachusetts, in 1834, and Caroline Johnson (d.1885) in 1844; his great-great grandfather was Elijah Williams (1767-1832) who married Hannah Barnard (1772-1853), daughter of Samuel Barnard (1721-1788) of Deerfield, in 1803; and his great-great-great grandfather was Dr. Thomas Williams (1718-1775) of Deerfield. This branch of the Williams family is also related to Elizabeth Williams Champney (1850-1922), a well-known writer of her period, who was the half-sister of Orson Bennet Williams and the wife of the artist, James Wells Champney (1843-1903). The back of the handle is stamped "sterling" next to the rampant lion of J.B. and S.M. Knowles Company of Providence, Rhode Island, which was originally formed by Joseph B. Knowles (d.1891) in 1852, went through several partnership cominations until Joseph Knowles was joined by his brother, Stephen M. Knowles in 1875. The Knowles plant was taken over by the Mauser Mfg. Co. in 1905.
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+79.084 |
