Spoons were often engraved for special occasions and then used as presentation pieces. These spoons represent a small piece of history which has often been forgotten. With a little research, however, it is sometimes possible to re-create the past and obtain a better understanding of life during the time of the great silver souvenir spoon era. This spoon is a good illustration.
An interesting spoon in the Medallion style which is a variation of the Gothic or Renaissance Revival era. The spoon is identified as having been patented on Dec. 29, 1868, but this spoon was probably actually made in the 1890's. The choice of this particular medallion spoon was based upon the play "Jupiter".
The acid etched bowl (sorry for the poor picture)
says:
"275 Performance
Mr. Digby Bell
in Jupiter"
Mr. Digby Bell was a well known , handsome and popular comedy actor during the 1890's. He was involved with the famous McCaull Opera Company which produced many plays starring most of the biggest actors and actresses of the "gay 90" era. This spoon was used to commemorate an important event.
This photo of Digby Bell is from a postcard
The play "Jupiter" is based upon the Tragicomedy Plautus' Amphitruo. Plautus was a Roman playwright of the 2nd or 3rd Century BC. His two plays Menaechmi and Amphitruo (upon which this play is based) established the basis for the neoclassic plays in which all events must fall with a 24 hour period and all events must take place in a single location with only one plot (no subplots).
Mercury begins this play by saying "I will give the background of this tragedy. What's that? Did you make a face, because I said this would be a tragedy? I'm a god, I'll change it. If you want, I will turn this tragedy into a comedy, using the very same verses. Do you want that, or not? Silly me, as if, being a god, I didn't know that's what you want. I know what you desire: I will make it mixed: let it be a tragicomedy. For I don't think it would be right for it to be continually a comedy, since there are kings and gods in it. How about it, then? Since a slave also has a part here, I will make it a tragicomedy, just as I said."
Shakespeare's play, "A Comedy of Errors", is one of the great Bard's earliest and it is the only neoclassic play which he wrote using the guidelines established by Plautus and it is also based upon the Amphitruo. (A husband is locked out of his own house while an impostor inside is involved with his wife.)
Many popular productions of this era were based upon historical plays as the late Victorians considered themselves to be very sophisticated and learned in the ancient arts and history.
Sometimes, this can be a frustrating hobby. This spoon was made by Gorham in a customized pattern ( as it is not in any of my books). The bowl is embossed in fancy script and says "100th Performance Tar and Tartan Aug 15 th 1891". The script is really fancy and hard to read, but that is the conclusion which I have come to after much effort. I suspect that this was a play, but I cannot find any historical references to this play. If you click on the picture, you will see a vastly magnified picture of the bowl. I invite you to try to decipher it and let me know if you have a different interpretation.
