(DOUGLASS FREDERICK) [Thompson Samuel W; designer] Souvenir

Sale 2471 - Lot 197

Price Realized: $ 812

?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price

Estimate: $ 500 - $ 750

(DOUGLASS, FREDERICK.) [Thompson, Samuel W.; designer.] Souvenir spoon commemorating the life of Frederick Douglass. Silver-plated spoon, 6 inches in length; minimal wear. [Chicago, IL, 1896]

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Additional Details

This spoon features a relief portrait of Douglass, with a chain design running up the handle noting the key events in his life on each link, and his name on verso. The design is illustrated in the 9 February 1896 issue of the Chicago Tribune. Designer Samuel W. Thompson, "the only colored traveling salesman for a jewelry house in this country," produced it as "a tribute from a colored man to the great negro statesman." A Douglass spoon with a different design was copyrighted in 1895 by Purdy & Peters of Providence, RI. The present example was owned by the family of Ebenezer Bassett, a friend and colleague of Douglass (see lot 193).