Spoons and a Fork

[chiil]

Found a little time this afternoon to head out and decided to head towards my usual fishing spot. As I was walking towards the spot, I turned into a clearing off the path that didn't have a lot grass/brush and was surrounded by trees. I immediately noticed a pile of roofing shingles among beer cans and a shot gun shell, could it have been an old house that stood here once? First good hit yielded a fork, followed by the spoons in a small 20 foot by 20 foot area. I noticed some old chinaware broken here and there, and found a piece of what looked to be a broken glass/crystal sugar bowl. I also pulled out some weird chain-hook contraption. I left that there next to a tree.

When I got home, I cleaned the items and thought they might be silver! Then on closer inspection, I noticed all the items had flaked slightly exposing copper. The fork has "Albert Pick & Company 12 DWT SECT..." and on the front side, the letters E.T.H.S. stamped on the end of it. When I showed my wife my bounty... she said "oh, look... Evanston Township High School". I stood there amazed. I have a feeling she's going to be awesome at this identification thing. The matching spoons had stamped on the back "REED & BARTON". The other spoon already lost most of its plating, although it's also an Albert Pick with the E.T.H.S. stamped on it as well.

Reed and Barton looks to still be in business, but Albert Pick & Company look to have at least been in business up through the 1940s. Albert Pick & Company supplied hotels and such with silverware. Makes sense that they might have supplied E.T.H.S. with goods as well. I'm guessing whoever lived there, had a child who brought back utensils from school.

I'll have to head back when there are less mosquitos.

 

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[watercolor]

Now that's cool
That's probably some silverware that "found" it's way home with a student that went there.

(That's where my mom went to high school in the late 1930's)

 

[DPBOB]

You sure you weren't out at the Boyscout Camp here in Des Plaines?

Wait you couldn't have been, Treasurefiend and Twistedd got all the silverware from there already.

 

[Dirt fishing Wolf]

Nice start to your finds, you might want to save a shoe box or 2 for all your future finds.

 

[chiil]

I tell ya, it was fun pulling these out... but even more fun cleaning them up a bit and realizing that they could have potentially been sterling *fat chance I guess*.

Bob, funny you mention Des Plaines. I wasn't down that far, but I was near the Des Plaines river in my neighborhood.

This also brings up a good point, what do I do with this stuff? I don't want to throw it out, but do you guys sell some of this off as scrap metal to close the loop? It was fun doing the digging and web research, but I don't know if I want it sitting in my closet.

 

[kimsdad]

Old silverplate? Good chance for old coins and Cracker Jack toys in that spot! Make sure you dig those CJ toy tones. I had them discriminated out for the longest time before I realized it.

I agree the old spoons & forks are interesting to find. I'm displaying one real ornate silverplate spoon in a shadowbox with other finds. The rest of what I found is in an old box. When I die, my kids will probably throw it out, so I'll probably beat them to it as some point.

Nice finds!!!

 

[p2c]

I'd hang on to them and accumulate a complete set over time. Then at some point, to be socially awkward, when you have guests, use the silverware.

 

[Lowbatts]

Folk-art inspired wind chime fodder for sure!

 

[chiil]

So today I decided to go out for my 2nd official hunt. This time I made sure to bring a long sleeve shirt and mosquito repellent. I was able to find some aerial photos of the area I hunted, and it looked like nothing was built on that spot (at least from 1938 and on). Decided to go back and see what else I pulled up.

I ended up pulling another spoon with the E.T.H.S. stamped on it, but this time when I got it home... I noticed on the reverse side it was stamped with 1930. Now I'm guessing this must had to have been a graduation gift. I've also been finding tons of broken china ware in the same area. Wonder what the heck happened there. Maybe a trash dump

Along with this I found another silver plated demitasse spoon and my first clad coinage. Two quarters, a dime and two pennies. Oldest being 1982. I was really excited to pull up that first quarter. I'm also learning how the detector likes to respond to coins vs. garbage, which I've been digging up anyways to help learn.

Fun, fun fun...