Homan Manufacturing Company Butter Dish

This little fellow is dented, has plate loss and the holder for he butter knife is pinched. I use it to hold pocket change. Old silver always wants to serve, it was born to serve and if you are creative you can find it a job. Plus, I really love the floral motif on this piece. 

I am also charmed by the fact that this butter dish was made by a small maker, the Homan Silverplate Co. from Cincinnati Ohio. The mark indicates that it was manufactured after 1896. 

Homan Manufacturing Company

Founded:

     1847

Closed: 

     1941

Founders/Managers:

     Asa F. Flagg -Retired 1854

     Henry Homan - Died 1865

     M.Miller- Joined as partner in 1854

     1865-Firm managed by Margaret Homan (Henry Homan's widow)

     and their sons:

     Frank Homan (Died 1880)

     Louis Homan

     and

     Joseph T. Homan

     

     Margaret Homan retired in 1887

Notes:

     Originally made britannia ware, german silver and pewter.

     1864 or thereabouts began silver plating operations

     

     Were known for their ecclesiastical wares.

     

     Made wares for river boats on the Mississippi and Ohio rivers.

     1896 firm changed names to Homan Silver Plate Co. 

     1904-1915 (somewhere in there) changed name to Homan Manufacturing Co. 

Marks:

     Homan and Co.

     Flagg and Homan

     Homan Silver Plate Co. (often with snarled anchor in round cartouche)

     Homan and Company Cincinnati

     Outfit (with cross) on church goods

     Richfield Plate Co. (Low cost goods)

     Sick-Call

     Special Metal (with hammer and crucible with H in crucible)

     Homan Mfg. Co. (with snarled anchor in round cartouche)

This is My Van Bergh Silverplate Company Butter Dish

 

It is the only other piece from Van Bergh that I have. I picked it up about two years ago.  I think at an estate sale and I think for under ten dollars. Unfortunately it is missing the silver platter to set butter on inside. There are also some repairs to the knife rests. It has the round Van Bergh mark and is item number "355".  Rather than repeat myself you can read all about the Van Bergh Silver Plate Company company here.

Showing Off a New Butter Dish

 

So I wanted to show off more from my Super Silver Saturday from last week. Besides the goblet and candlestick, I also picked up this butter dish for a steal. It is from the Meriden Britannia Company. It is also marked "1884" which is the manufacturers piece number not the year. 

Now before you get too excited there are a few things you should know. First, the plate even with tarnish is in excellent condition. The inside of the piece as well. As you can see it has a big G on the front and a flower finial. Plus the legs are stunning.  It almost looks alien in its design. It was not the prettiest butter dish I saw that day, but was tucked away on a high shelf forgotten, forlorn and on sale.  I am going to guess that it is late Victorian

(1880s - 1890s), but I have not located it (yet) in any of the Meriden Britannia Company catalogues.

Now for the bad part. Someone at sometime painted the outside silver. It just had little droplets of silver paint all over the place. But if you remember I like to think of silver collecting as a type of archeology. So someone ruined this piece, I think given time I can clean it up. If this piece of artwork can survive over one hundred years then I can finish the job someone started in paint removal. I have started reading about removing paint from silver. There is more information about this from jewelers on the internet than anyone else. It appears the main thing, (and this is not a surprise) is to avoid any paint remover with sulfur.  

This will be a lot of work but if I can salvage it, I can take a piece from a level I can afford and move it to a level I cannot. Even if I fail, I still have a butter dish that, guess what, can hold butter.   If I get the paint off the only remaining issues are a slightly bent knife holder and a tiny dent on the bottom. Which for its age should not detract from its value.

Butter Dish, Rogers Smith & Company

Looked at this pretty nice butter dish this weekend. It was a bit out of my price range. Still, it is a good idea to study pieces even if they are out of your price range. The first good reason is if you win the lottery you will be prepared for the pieces you want. Second, it helps your silver education. This piece was at an antique mall I had not been to for a couple of years. I was surprised at the amount of silver they had available. Some of it quite good. Most of it quite pricey. They had a very nice goat dish that I got a picture of. I hope to post that soon. It was pretty nice for a small serving piece. This butter dish seemed to be in pretty good condition. It had some plate missing but it was in places where it would be expected. I did not get the chance to look inside so I do not know the full condition.  Being locked in a case I did not want to bother the owners to get it out for me.

This piece was made by the Rogers Smith & Co.  It is marked West Meriden.

This firm was organized in 1857 and consolidated with the Rogers Brothers Manufacturing Co. in 1861.

The flatware division of Rogers Brother Mfg. Co. was sold to Meriden Britannia Co..

In 1862 Edward Mitchell bought out the holloware division of Rogers Brothers Mfg. Co..
He formed the Rogers Smith & Co. of New Haven.

In 1863 Meriden Britannia Company bought this out and continued using the factory in New Haven.

The works of the factory were moved to Meriden in 1865 and consolidated in 1866.

In 1877 the mark and works were fully incorporated into Meriden Britannia Company.   

According to Rainwater (2004) a piece marked "West Meriden" would have been made between 1877 and the early 1880's.