An interest in authors and poets would be expected from a generation of people who didn't have television, radio or the WWW. Among average citizens there was a great knowledge about literary figures and in certain authors.
The fact that several of them resided in upstate New York, near some beautiful vacation areas, means that we should not be surprised that we have a number of silver souvenir spoons about Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Nathaniel Hawthorne.
Of course other important writers were also represented on souvenir spoons and this exhibit shows spoons honoring several of them.
In addition, recently several companies have made sets of spoons representing some of the characters in books and plays. These are shown in other exhibits and links are provided at the bottom of this exhibit.
A number of beautiful spoons about Longfellow are available to spoon collectors. I saw one exhibit which showed over 30 different spoons about this writer.
Longfellow with a book
A hand engraved version of Longfellow's house
Front and back views of a Hawthorne spoon
Hand painted portrait of William Shakespeare
with a gold washed bowl engraved "Stratford-on-Avon"
This spoon is still in its original box and someone made a note on the box that it was a present from "Papa" in 1914 (the spoon is hallmarked Birmingham 1900). I wonder if it sat in stock for this long a time or if the box writing was done at a later date?
A very cute vermeil bon-bon spoon with a very nicely chased border and an engraved picture of Shakespeare's house. (Birmingham 1896)
Cute spoon with a bust of the famous Bard and the
vermeil bowl has an engraved
picture of his house. The stem has a reproduction of his signature.
(Birmingham, 1902)
Very nice hand painted and enameled spoon featuring a portrait of Shakespeare at the finial and the Trinity church in Stratford-on-Avon in the bowl. Made in Birmingham, 1907.
Mark Twain's (aka Samuel Clemens) boyhood home, Hannibal, Missouri
Leatherstocking was the fictional hero of Cooper's
novel, "The Pioneers".
His character embraced the qualities of justice, truth, reverence,
integrity,
frankness and courage
(This is someone we could use in politics today)
The finial on this spoon is a miniature of the statue erected to honor
James
Fenimore Cooper on the shore of Lake Otsego, New York
Hand engraved view of Washington Irving's house "Sunnyside" in Tarryton, New York (1903)
Robert Burns bust finial with a cast bowl of his house (made Birmingham, 1896)
View the Hans Christian Anderson Character Spoon exhibits
View the Charles Dickens Character Spoon exhibit