Featured Hello and advice on monograms please

ahem ..ah yes, unless of course it was the monogram of Catherine the Great/Anastasia/Queen Elizabeth the first etc ..then I suppose an exception could be made?

 

I would get those to a prestigious auction house asap.

 

Hi,
Get the monogramed set. Remember years ago the initials for silver were the Brides initials NOT the grooms. As to famous I have a set of sterling from the White House in Washington. A little girl was hired by the White House at age 14 to help in the kitchen she loved polishing the silver. She worked there until her 75 birthday. When asked what she wanted as a retirement gift she wanted a set of Sterling which she had polished for years.
It was granted and several years after her death the family had a well known auction house sell the silver. I bought it and have used it for years. I think of all the famous people which might have used the silver in their day.
greg

 

Great story Greg. Love it. Oh if that silverware could talk.

 

Welcome Kisa. I'm a flatware junkie (spoons in particular) and am rather fond of monograms, while I try to match them to family names, have no problem with any others, they are sometimes tiny little works af art, and regardless, they add to the history. The old pic below is a pair of Gorham Nuremberg demitasse spoons, would guess that the large monogram is the initials of a couple married on the engraved date of Mar. 28. 1891, the later engraved initials, fit in over the monograms, have the same surname initial, so suppose they were engraved for the next or a later generation - they were thrown in when I bought a nice 12-spoon presentation case because of the 'ugly engraving', and I love them. If you like the fish set, and the monogram isn't going to bother you personally (your opinion is what matters), then buy it...




Would like to compliment you on your table setting choices - King Cedric is very nice, originally introduced in 1933 as a silverplate pattern, reintroduced in sterling in 1949, one of those patterns that goes well with both contemporary and traditional settings, and your china and glassware choices are also quite lovely, simple and elegant.

~Cheryl

 

When I was on the antique show circuit, there was a lady that would show up at shows in Florida and Georgia on the lookout for sterling teaspoons and coffee spoons monogrammed with a single initial. She gifted them to friends and family with the corresponding initial. I thought this was a charming thing to do and would put any I encountered aside for her, I could usually buy them cheaply enough that I could sell them to her in the $10-$15 dollar range. Everyone was happy.

 

My Mom used to do that - she'd combine the spoon with an antique cup & saucer, gourmet coffee and/or tea, and some home-baked treat, or a tin of her famous Christmas cookies (for decades, she'd make at least 20 different types every year). After her sister's passing, she retrieved the spoon with a 'K' she'd given her, and used it almost every day...

~Cheryl

 

I wasn't referring to jewelry. That is an entirely different realm.
I was referring only to silverware and hollow-ware.
I would never consider you a stick in the mud.

 

My great grandparents had a set of sterling (I think) children's spoon engraved with the names of each of their 6 children. I have them now and there is my grandmother Elsie and her brothers and sisters. At her funeral, I got to put faces to the names on several of the spoons. A nice memory!

I love beautifully monogrammed and hand chased silver and would use it at every opportunity! Most are works of art.

 

Oh, even on jewelry!
I’m in love with this kind of monogram, paste on blue crystal, so... bought it and wear it

 

No "Zorros" in the family tree?

 

Thank you for your welcome.

 

Thank you!

 

Wow!

 

Thank you all for your input. I do really love the set and am happy I've gotten the go ahead from all of you knowledgeable folks. As the conversation has broadened to include linens, jewelry, etc., I'd like to add my own pet peeve - designer's initials on clothing, handbags, etc. If I want an initial on a belt buckle (I do have a silver buckle with my dad's initials that I had put on a belt of mine), it will be my own, not Louis Vuiton's or Ralph Lauren's. Chanel's CC don't bother me as much.

 

Seconded
No point in advertising for these people.

 

Agreed!

 

I never minded the Chanel one either, until I read that it reminded Diana of you-know-who. For some reason that pathetic little factoid stuck in my craw.

 

I'm the same.
The only name I ever had on a T-shirt was Paul Gauguin's signature. He never designed the T-shirt (or any other) of course, but he is one of my favourite painters.