Featured Been waiting a long time for this spoon...

Started keeping an eye out for an affordable American coin silver spoon by John Athan Waite (w.1762-1817) well over 15 years ago, he and his brother William were silversmith nephews of Joseph Wait (b.1697), one of my direct ancestors through my paternal grandmother's line.

Had one of his spoons in my eBay watchlist for about two years, but its 'Buy-It-Now' price was way too high (finally sold yesterday, the 'best offer' half of the BIN, and still much more than I'd pay). A couple of weeks ago, another came up for a reasonable price, but questions about its condition, etc. bothered me, and contacting the seller only resulted in a curt answer regarding the most obvious issue - despite having several watchers, it sold at the opening bid.

So once again, did a google search for another spoon, and surprisingly, one turned up at Replacements, it looked good and was reasonably priced, so snapped it up and it arrived today - my first purchase ever from them, and I'm very happy with it, to my eye, better than either of the other two I'd been following. It's a good sturdy piece, about 8.5 inches long, 53 grams, with a nice period engraving, a sweet V-drop, one tiny ding in the bowl, and some tip wear to the bowl that I'd expect to see - honest wear no problem for me...












From Belden's 'Marks of American Silversmiths in the Ineson-Bissell Collection' (1980):




From WEV's wonderful 'American Silversmiths' site:

http://freepages.rootsweb.com/~silversmiths/genealogy/makers/silversmiths/31205.htm



~Cheryl

 

Fantastic! Congratulations. I'm very excited for you. I know the longing and the frustration. You must be thrilled. I am thrilled for you.

 

How lovely to own something crafted by an ancestor

 

How wonderful, congratulations! So this silver stuff is really in your blood by blood then

 

So very happy for you Dragonflywink! If the spoon could talk, I'm sure it would say how happy it was with it's new home!

 

It's beautiful!! And so special!

 

Can't add to what others said
Bravo for the find

 

Ditto to everything said before. Amazing find, and a perfectly proportioned treasure.
I always knew you had silver running through your veins.

 

Thanks, guys! There is a certain pleasure in holding a piece made by the hand of distant kin...

~Cheryl

 

Breathtaking!

 

Thanks, Sue - thought you might like the genealogical connection, too...

~Cheryl