Description:
One of a set of three silver tablespoons with pointed oval bowls, rounded shoulders, and fiddle-end handles, which are marked "J.O. & W. PITKIN" and "L.M. & A.C. ROOT" in rectangles on the back of the handle for the brothers, John Owen Pitken (1803-1891) and Walter Pitkin (1808-1885) of East Hartford, Connecticut, who were in partnership from 1830-1840 when John retired. The sons of Joseph Adams Root (1784-1844) of Otis, Massachusetts, and Apphia Clark Root (b.1796) who married in 1811, Lawrens Mattoon Root (1816-1864) was in partnership with Aurelius Clark Root (1818-1881) as "LM & A.C. ROOT" from the early to mid 1830s to 1840 in Pittsfield, and in several other business ventures both in Massachusetts and Iowa. By 1836, Aurelius was a travelling saleman, opened a store in Blandford, Massachusetts, wiht his brother operating from 1838-1841; moved to Chester, Massachusetts, where he opened a general store and still sold goods on the road; moved to Belvidere, Illinois, in 1852 where he worked as a bank cashier; and to Lyons, Clinton County, Iowa, in 1853 where he opened the first bank, still in business with his brother as the Root Brothers' Bank. Laurens Root seems to have moved to Seneca Falls, New York, by 1843, where he was a merchant, and was also in partnership with their other brother, Washington Mc Donough Root (1823-1884), in Pittsfield, circa 1856. The spoons may have been made by the Pitkins and engraved and sold by the Roots.
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https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+2007.21.2 |
