MF&CO Marshall Field's Craft Shop STERLING Creamer Sugar w/ Monogram, 194 grams!

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Vintage, Antique, Sterling Silver Hand Wrought, Hammered Creamer and Sugar made in the Marshall Field & Co. Craft Shop, 1907-1917. This one appears to be pre-WWI, or c. 1913, as it is very heavy. Applied monogram is the classic Chicago Arts and Crafts style, similar in style to Falick Novick silver shop monograms and an unusual form for Marshall Field Colonial Silver.This set is in very nice condition and illustrative of Chicago 's unique history in the American Arts & Crafts Movement (1890-1940) that commercialized artistic handwrought wares and jewelry, creating hundreds of jobs that were filled mostly by women and immigrants.Fabulous Artifact of Chicago Art History! No home should be without Marshall Field & Co. hand wrought, hammered silver from the Arts & Crafts Era! You may return this for any reason as long as you let me know upon delivery. I am selling this set and another for a friend. This set is substantially heavier than the other set I have on eBay, indicating the different years they were made and likely the influence of WWI luxury taxes and silver rationing, which dates this set prior to the war.Condition: Very Good to Great overall condition. The handle on the creamer needs to be re-soldered at the bottom (see pic #2), or you can use it as is. Set needs a good polish.Size and Weight : Weighs 194 grams for the pair. 2 1/8" high, 2 9/16 to top of handle, creamer is 4 7/8" from handle to handle.Signed, Hallmark: MF&CO/ Colonial/ Sterling in a rectangle, Model 1303.Background: Marshall Field's Craft Shop and Colonial SilverShortly after the turn of the century, Marshall Field & Co. emerged as a major commercial manufacturer of wholesale and retail arts and crafts jewelry, silver and metalwork. Its innovative workshops provided training for dozens of workers who went on to start their own companies or work for the leading artisans of the period. Julius O. Randahl and Isadore Friedman worked at Marshall Field and went on to work for the Kalo Shop in Park Ridge, IL; Ernest Gerlach left MF & CO to co-found the Cellini Shop, featuring hand wrought sterling silver, copper, and pewter wares, as well as jewelry.MF & CO was important in promoting the Arts and Crafts Movement in Chicago because it bought merchandise from local artisans, sold wares on consignment, sponsored art exhibits in its store and openly embraced the metalwork and jewelry industries taking hold in the city.In 1901, Marshall Field's hired George H. Dufour, a jeweler and silversmith, to establish jewelry and silver workrooms, which would also manufacture decorative household objects. Dufour modeled the facilities after Tiffany & Co. and opened the workrooms and a wholesale silver business around 1903. These comprehensive workrooms allowed Marshall Field & Co. to qualify as the first department store in the country to sell Gorham silver.Marshall Field & Co. quickly embraced and fueled the burgeoning arts and crafts industries by introducing the latest designs in its stores and for the wholesale trade. One ad from 1904 touted, " Verdigris green, an artistic coloring in jewelry, silverware, lamps and electroliers, is now executed in our jewelry workroom." In December 1907, Dufour launched the Marshall Field & Co Craft Shop, which manufactured acid-etched and hammered jewelry in copper, brass and silver, as well as a new retail line of hand-hammered Colonial silver in the arts and crafts style, which included bowls, plates, tea and coffee sets, water pitchers, chocolate sets, trays, flatware, serving pieces and tea caddies, children's silver -- all "finished to show the hammer marks." A reporter for the Illustrated Review in 1908 noted that the Craft Shop, a place where "Ruskin or William Morris might have joyed in," made Colonial silver and a broad range of artistic metal craft items and jewelry that crystallized "the personal impulse of the craftsman." [By Darcy L. Evon]. read more

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