Woodward & Lothrop Sterling Tray

Woodward & Lothrop (Woodies) was a very nice department store in the Washington DC area where I grew up. It was the kind of place where you buy nicer quality clothes, shoes, bedding etc and could register your china pattern and silver but whether or not they "made" their own silver I don't know. They put their name on lots of different types of items.

 

Thanks for the info, Bakers. Then I'm either remembering them being there in the mid-70s or later on saw their name on the building and assumed they were still there.

 

There was a building on Merrimack St, a bit west of "downtown" as I recall. I lived a few blocks from there for a few years. Some how I don't recall it ever looking very "busy."

Whenever I wanted to look at pretty silver, I went window shopping at Old Newbury Crafters. I have a sterling necklace and letter opener, plus a pewter plate.

 

Yup, that's where I remember it being. I just looked on Google Maps, and the Towle Building is still there on Merrimack St.

Before the summer's over, I think we'll go out to Newburyport and poke around... haven't been there in a few years.

 

Since we're talking about American sterling manufacturers, I thought I'd mention LUNT, which was manufacturing silver in Greenfield, MA from just after 1900 until 2010. The company went into bankruptcy late in 2009 and sold its brand name, patterns and inventory to Reed & Barton.

Back in 1969 or 1970, when I was in boarding school in the same area of MA as the Lunt company, I bought a Lunt "spoon bracelet" (a bit of a rage at the time - in prep school, anyway...) at a nearby jewelry store. I wore it for quite a while, then stuck it away & didn't think about it again.

In 1978, when I was getting married, I looked thru TONS of sterling patterns and ended up choosing a Lunt pattern. It was simple and pretty, which was just what I wanted.

In 1983, when I was pregnant with my first child, my mom surprised me with the sterling baby spoon and fork and the silver "youth set" I had used as a child.

To my absolute amazement, all 3 - the bracelet, my wedding silver, and the baby/youth silver - were the same Lunt pattern. (It must have been a subconscious memory from infancy!)

Anyway, I guess you could say I've always had a fondness for Lunt silver and was sad to hear about the company's demise.

As for Woodward & Lothrop (a/k/a Woodies) - I worked there in the mid-1970's during grad school in DC. The pay was lousy, and the employee discount was extremely limited, but I still loved working there.

Woodies was a DC institution until the firm sold out to the May Company in 1995. There's even a book about them: Woodward & Lothrop: A Store Worthy of the Nation's Capital, by Michael J. Lisicky (The History Press, 2013.)

I love what Lisicky says about Woodies & DC's other 2 "hometown" department stores: he says Woodward & Lothrop was like a Buick, or what Buick once represented: more upmarket than a Chevy (Hecht’s), less exclusive than a Cadillac (Garfinckel’s)." (Until we moved from the DC area, I bought my own dresses & evening wear and my husband's ties at Garfinckel's, my household linens and kitchen stuff at Woodies, and underwear, socks & stockings at Hecht's!)

In any case, Woodies was a retailer, not a manufacturer. I have a number of sterling hollowware items with the W&L mark on them, and I was told when I bought them that some were made by Towle and others by Gorham. I don't know what other manufacturing firms Woodies also might have used. I also don't know how late they continued offering silver items with the W&L mark on them, but I know it was at least into the mid-1970's.

-C-

 

Sadly, Reed & Barton, the last large American silver manufacturing hold-out, which remained under ownership of the Reed family from the 1830s, even fighting off a hostile takeover attempt in the early 20th century by Gorham's Edward Holbrook, gave it up earlier this year, filing for bankruptcy. Originally headed for Lifetime Sterling to join Gorham, Towle, International, Wallace, Kirk-Stieff, Tuttle, and Empire, they were instead acquired by Lenox - given their practices in the last couple of decades, have to wonder what will happen, not sure it's any better outcome than acquisition by Lifetime. Reed & Barton had moved their production overseas (mostly Asia) several years ago, Lifetime claims their silver is produced in the U.S. - do know that Syratech (founded by Leonard Florence after he was ousted from Towle) moved production of Towle, International and Wallace to Puerto Rico, still maintaining that 'U.S. made' distinction, perhaps Lifetime is still using the same facilities...

http://www.wcvb.com/money/silver-city-no-more-tauntons-reed-barton-files-for-bankruptcy/31378072

http://www.giftsanddec.com/article/519210-lenox-acquire-reed-barton

Sue - Enjoy your memories of Old Newbury Crafters, they're still producing fine hand-crafted silver, but battle to survive - now owned by Peter Dooney of Dooney & Bourke handbags, there seems be little interest in keeping the company going (their website went down almost a year ago). They did bring in a new silversmith not too long ago though, a young woman named Chloe Darke: http://chloedarke.com/news.html

~Cheryl

 

Oh, that's sad, Cheryl. I think Swift Barnes was still there when I used to visit.

Hm. That link for Chloe Darke says ONC was in Amesbury, not Newburyport. Production as opposed to sales, I guess?

 

Hi,
Reed and Barton was taken over by Lenox. Lenox was taken over by Dept. 56 several years ago. All Lenox is made overseas except for the dinnerware line which is getting ready to be sent overseas. All Lenox collectables are now made overseas with tiny clear labels saying what country they are made in. As these labels dry out and fall off they only thing that says Lenox. Any pieces of old Lenox say made in USA printed on the piece. Lenox has been so cheapened by all this Asian stuff I strongly tell people buy extra pieces of your dinnerware now while it is still made here. Once it goes overseas it will NOT match and look different. This is what happened to Franciscan Apple and Desert Rose, it was sold off to Europe and now it has been sent overseas. None of it matches anymore. The same thing is going to happen to Lenox. I think the only two companies that are still made here is Homer Laughlin and Picker. Lenox is soon to be gone.
greg

 

Sue - they moved from Newburyport to Amesbury in the late '70s (1979?). On the 'good news' front, found their Facebook page and it had a link to their new website - not much to it, but still an encouraging sign...

http://oldnewburycrafterssilver.com/

https://www.facebook.com/oldnewburycrafters

~Cheryl

 

Ah, late '70s explains why I couldn't remember anything about a company making silver items in Amesbury. We left Amesbury in '75, I think.

 

That is encouraging! I was there until late '82. The location I remember was the storefront downtown. It was small and I doubt they had much if any room there for production. Plus Amesbury rents would have been (and probably still are) way cheaper once Nbpt became "re-developed."

 

Interesting... thanks, Cheryl!