A Toast to C. C.

Maribel and me drank a toast to C C last night. He wasn't here and we don't know much about him, but from information we do have we can make some reasonable assumptions, to the point that we feel comfortable lifting our wine goblets in his honor. But before getting into that let me take this back to where the toast really had its beginning.

In 1841 in Hartford, Connecticut brothers William, Asa and Simon Rogers were starting out as silversmiths. There was nothing to set them apart from the many other silversmiths working in New England until 1847, when they perfected the silver plating process. Their business grew rapidly and they started stamping their products with the Rogers & Bros trademark. For whatever reasons the brothers sold their business to the Meriden Britannia Company in 1862. Meriden continued the Rogers line of silverware after moving the business to Meriden, Connecticut, and they continued to use the Rogers trademark.

I am assuming that the number 2225 1/2 is a mold or style number but have been unable thus far to confirm that. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Meriden either sold the business or simply changed their name, I don't know which, but in 1898 they became the International Silver Company, which continues today and continues to produce under the Rogers name. Okay, enough history. Where does C C fit into the story? 

Fast-forward to a day last week at the Relics LLC antique shop in Cleveland, Tennessee where, in a corner on a table among other items was the three-piece tankard set seen below. All three pieces bare the ornate monogram C C. On the tankard below the monogram is engraved the date 1880. Each piece has the trade mark stamp and number shown above.

Now, about those 'reasonable assumptions' I referred to earlier regarding C C. At first we thought that he lived in or near the state of Connecticut because of the proximity to the manufacturing site, but have since learned that Meriden Britannia had sales offices in London, Hamilton Ontario, San Francisco, Chicago and New York, so we can't even say for certain that he lived in the United States. We say 'he' because women had little stature in those days and probably would not be the recipient of such an expensive set. By the way, it is probable that the set consisted of more pieces than these three. We don't believe that C C would order the set for himself, so we're assuming it was a gift. A birthday gift is possible, but it could also have something to do with the Civil War. The war had been over for only fifteen years when C C received his gift, so it's possible that he fought in the war or had some other association with it. Lastly, we're assuming that he was of at least middle age; at least in his forties, which would put his birth year around 1840. It doesn't seem likely that an unmarried young man would receive such a gift; more likely an older head of a household. And lastly, we assume that he was successful in whatever his occupation was. So putting all those assumptions together; a successful middle-aged family man probably living in a larger USA city, right or wrong we have a generic image of C C and his family, possibly resembling this 1880s family. 

It was a unusual, almost surreal feeling, drinking that first sip of wine from the same goblets that he and his family drank from one hundred forty years ago. 

On a practical note, the pieces are obviously badly tarnished. On the bottom of the tankard I used MAAS metal paste polish, a product I've had good success with in the past, as an experiment to see if it would improve the appearance. To my surprise it completely removed the tarnish in the small test area. It is literally going to take months to polish all three pieces, especially getting into all the nooks and crannies on the tankard but we're determined to do it. The finished pieces would make an attractive display if we can find someplace to put them, and we think that C C would be proud.

UPDATE - the day after. This tankard set has got me acting like a kid at Christmas. I was so happy with the success of my polishing test that I couldn't wait to begin on one of the goblets. There are some spots that no matter how hard I rubbed or how many times I tried, the tarnish will not give way. But the spots aren't that big and the overall appearance is much more than I'd hoped for. 

It does take effort...a lot of elbow grease, polish and time. I'll work on the other goblet next, because I am not looking forward to tackling that tankard. But the good thing is that every little bit of progress results in a brilliant shine that spurs me on.