Featured Identification Help

It’s a rack for something I recon. There’s a copper box lining the bottom part which is pretty tarnished. As you can see it’s designed to hang on a wall and not designed to hold anything too heavy, overall it’s about 20” tall.

Thank You!

 

Spoon rack.

 

As wiscbirddog has said, it's a display rack for spoons.

My great aunt had one similar in the 1960's, and she had a fake philodendron "growing" in the little trough at the bottom.

 

Thank You Folks!
So would this be for “special” spoon like souvenir spoons/ornate spoons then?

 

I imagine that once upon a long, long time ago, people kept their spoons on a rack, perhaps to keep them all together.

In more modern times, yes, a rack like this would have been made for someone's more "special" spoons: souvenir spoons & the like.

 

Got it! Thank You!

 

Note: I found mention of (albeit no substantial info about) the Nelson Furniture Co. in some 1950's journals on Google Books.

For example:
from the Police and Peace Officers' Journal of the State of California (Volume Jan./Feb. 1956-Oct./Nov. 1957) online (page 25 of 95)
1956

NELSON FURNITURE CO.
We Specialize in FINE MAPLE AND CHERRY FURNITURE
Phone CYpress 5 4400
1050-1054 PARK AVENUE
SAN JOSE. CALIFORNIA

http://www.ebooksread.com/authors-e...-state-of-california-volume-janfeb--fna.shtml

 

hmmmm. at 20" tall it seems a little big for a spoon rack to me. BWDIK?

 

I thought at first it was a pipe rack but spoon rack makes sense.

 

Bdigger, the 20" is pretty average for this type of rack, actually.

Figure the decorative top is ~5"-6", the bottom trough ~2"-3", and that leaves ~11"-13" for the spoons, divided into two rows. If the spoons are 5"-6" teaspoons, they'd work fine.

 

Yeah is, early american spoon racks/cupboards are HIGHLY collectible with better examples going for thousands.

 

Those early spoon holders are fantastic ..although we know those would not have been for "souvenir" spoons. Early silver collecting wasn't based on purchasing "sets" but acquiring one or more pieces at a time, and considered fairly high status items, being fashioned by hand by metal smiths. The specific souvenir form was brought to the US in the late 1880s, after industrial advancements made silver machinable, thus more affordable, and copying European forms. The Daniel Lowe Silver Company in Salem, Mass had one of the first and maybe most famous, the Salem Witch spoon. They fetch high prices on eBay! I recently have been liquidating a friends' family souvenir silver flatware, and studying the level of craftsmanship and attention to detail on some pieces is staggering!

 

Yeah, they can be, no doubt & hideously expensive as well. I once watched a lady dealer friend of mine who collected spoons pay over 10k for this mid 18th century american spoon cabinet. I looked at her like HAVE YOU LOST YOUR MIND?!!!
She explained that spoon collectors can be VERY serious about racks/cabs to display their spoons, some of which are ancient spoons and, it was a very GOOD BUY! I guess, she sold it later for more than she paid so.......WDIK

mid 18th century Queen Anne Spoon cab with Tombstone doors

 

Jeez! I was thinking like $20 for my humble example, I had no idea how out of hand old/nice versions of these can get.

 

Ditto! I had no clue about the value of these utilitarian furniture forms. Take the humble bucket bench for example, pottery people will pay big bucks for fine early examples to display their pots, who knew?

 

Unfortunately, more "modern" spoon rack like the one you've shown don't command very much money at all.

Here's one on eBay, listed for $16.99 + S&H

VINTAGE WOODEN SPOON DISPLAY RACK - DARK WOOD STARBURST AT TOP - 12 SPOONS
from seller: oscarscloset2016

 

Agreed.
I wasn’t off by too far.....I do have a dozen or so mediocre souvenir spoons I could bundle...I suppose that might help me or hurt me.

 

Sadly, I don't think it would help at all. Anyone looking for a spoon rack is probably looking because she/he already has spoons to put in it.

Also, those who collect souvenir spoons generally do so by location or subject or maker or style; it's rarely random. Someone else's "collection" isn't going to match their own preferences.

Finally, if the spoons you have aren't sterling silver, there won't be much, if any, demand for them, anyway.

(-- and if they ARE sterling, you'd be losing out by bundling them with the holder!)

 

That’s good to know!!
Thank You!