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🥄 Wm. Rogers Mfg. Co. Thomas Jefferson Presidential Spoon — Louisiana Purchase 1803 Map Bowl
Jefferson's bust on the handle and a relief map of the Louisiana Purchase in the bowl, from the Wm. Rogers presidential spoon series.
SPECIFICATIONS
- Maker mark: WM ROGERS MFG. CO. (back of handle)
- President: Thomas Jefferson — name pressed into the stem, bust in an oval on the handle
- Bowl: 1803 · relief map of the United States · LOUISIANA PURCHASE
- Finish: gold-toned
- Series: Wm. Rogers presidential spoons
CONDITION
Bowl map, date and lettering read clearly. Please see the photos.
THE STORY
The series. Each spoon carries a president's bust on the tip, his name on the stem and a scene from his term in the bowl — Kennedy's is the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Sets were produced in the 1960s and early 1970s, running to 34 spoons ending with Kennedy and 36 ending with Nixon.
The company. William Rogers founded the William Rogers Manufacturing Company in Hartford, Connecticut, in 1865 with his son William Jr. It joined the International Silver Company of Meriden when New England silversmiths merged in 1898.
The Purchase. Robert Livingston and James Monroe signed the treaty in Paris on April 30, 1803, buying about 828,000 square miles from Napoleon's France for $15 million after being authorized to spend $10 million on New Orleans and the Floridas. Jefferson feared it needed a constitutional amendment; his cabinet disagreed, and the deal doubled the nation.
The lore. M. W. Galt Bro. & Co. made the first American souvenir spoon, George Washington, in 1889, and Seth Low's Salem Witch Spoon of 1891 launched a thirty-year collecting craze. The Purchase centennial brought the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition to St. Louis, where legend has it the ice cream cone and iced tea were born — they were really just made famous there.
GOOD FOR
- Presidential and souvenir spoon collectors
- Jefferson, Lewis and Clark and westward-expansion history fans
- History teachers and Monticello visitors
- Small gifts with a real story
