Description:
Silver tablespoon with a downturned fiddle-end handle, rounded shoulders and pointed oval bowl, which is marked "PHELPS" in a rectangle on the back and with a small sunburst probably for Ebenezer S. Phelps (1788-1872), and engraved "HA" under the maker's mark and "The property of the/ Church in Northampton" on the top of the handle. This mark has been attributed to Ebenezer S. Phelps (1788-1872), the son of Nathaniel Phelps (1757-1833) and Lucy Strong (1762-1834) of Northampton, who used the mark of "E.S. PHELPS" in a rectangle. He advertised in partnership with James Crooks in Northampton under the firm name Crooks & Phelps in the "Greenfield Franklin Herald" (1812), and in "The Democrat.." An ad in the Hampshire Gazette dated September 7, 1825 reads: "For sale Gold and Silver Watches, Silver and plated Table and Teaspoons...." He also advertised for an apprentice. He was in partnership with a man named Strong in Northampton as Phelps and Strong, c.1823-1826, and later partnerships included one with Nelson Holland as Phelps & Holland, c.1827-1828, and G.W. White as Phelps & White, c.1828-1830. E.S. Phelps moved to Springfield, Illinois, where he worked as a silversmith and watchmaker from 1831-1838, and then in Princeton, Illinois, from 1838-1860.
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https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+L2000.1.1 |
