Industry | Silversmith |
---|---|
Founded | 1824 |
Defunct | February 2015 |
Fate | Bankruptcy |
Headquarters | , |
Reed & Barton was a prominent American silversmith manufacturer based in the city of Taunton, Massachusetts, operating between 1824 and 2015. Its products include sterling silver and silverplate flatware. The company produced many varieties of britannia and silver products since Henry G. Reed [1] and Charles E. Barton took over the failing works of Isaac Babbitt [2] in Taunton. During the American Civil War, Reed & Barton produced a considerable quantity of weapons for Union Army soldiers and officers. [3]
Reed & Barton was originally founded as Babbitt & Crossman in Taunton, Massachusetts, in 1824. Babbitt & Crossman, which produced Britannia ware, was first owned by Isaac Babbitt. However, the company was slowly losing money, so the failing company was purchased by Henry G. Reed and business partner Charles E. Barton. [3] [4]
In 1928, Reed & Barton merged with silversmith Dominick & Haff. [5]
Reed & Barton was chosen to design and produce the official gold, silver, and bronze medals for the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, [6] of which there are samples on display at the Old Colony History Museum in Taunton. The company's products are used at the White House in Washington, D.C. Today, the company operates a factory store at the plant site, an outlet store at Wrentham Premium Outlets in Wrentham, Massachusetts, and an online store as well.
The company remained privately owned by the family of Henry Reed. Besides the flatware, Reed & Barton operated other brands as well:
The company's manufacturing complex in Taunton is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Reed & Barton filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in February 2015, citing ongoing pension liabilities and decreasing revenue. [7] In a bankruptcy auction conducted in April 2015, the operating assets of the company were acquired by The Lenox Company, a competing maker of flatware and tableware. [8]
Lenox Corporation is an American manufacturing company that sells tableware, giftware, and collectible products under the Lenox, Dansk, Reed & Barton, Gorham, and Oneida brands. For most of the 20th century, it was the most prestigious American maker of tableware, and the company produced other decorative pieces as well. Several Lenox china services were commissioned for the White House. By 2020, it was the last significant manufacturer of bone china in the United States, until the COVID-19 pandemic forced the closure of the company's only remaining American factory.
Sterling silver is an alloy composed by weight of 92.5% silver and 7.5% other metals, usually copper. The sterling silver standard has a minimum millesimal fineness of 925.
Oneida Limited is an American manufacturer and seller of tableware and cutlery. Oneida is one of the world's largest designers and sellers of stainless steel and silverplated cutlery and tableware for the consumer and foodservice industries. It is also the largest supplier of dinnerware to the foodservice industry in North America. The company operates in the United States, Canada, Latin America, Europe, and Asia, marketing and distributing tabletop products, which include flatware, dinnerware, crystal stemware, glassware and kitchen tools and gadgets. The factory in upstate NY was sold to Liberty Tabletop, who is the sole manufacturer of US made flatware. The company originated in the late-nineteenth century in the Oneida Community in Oneida, New York.
F. B. Rogers Silver Co. was a silversmithing company founded in Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts in 1883. It was acquired by Edmund W. Porter and L.B. West, who incorporated the company and moved manufacturing operations to Taunton, Massachusetts in 1886. For several years, the company was known as West Silver Company, and produced silver products for the William Rogers Manufacturing Company of Hartford, Connecticut.
Charles Sinclair Weeks, better known as Sinclair Weeks, was an American politician who served as a United States Senator from Massachusetts in 1944 and as United States Secretary of Commerce from 1953 until 1958, during President Dwight D. Eisenhower's administration.
Isaac Babbitt was an American inventor. In 1839, he invented a bearing made of a low-friction tin-based metal alloy, Babbitt metal, that is used extensively in engine bearings today.
The Gorham Manufacturing Company was one of the largest American manufacturers of sterling and silverplate and a foundry for bronze sculpture.
Household silver or silverware includes tableware, cutlery, and other household items made of sterling silver, silver gilt, Britannia silver, or Sheffield plate silver. Silver is sometimes bought in sets or combined to form sets, such as a set of silver candlesticks or a silver tea set.
Francis 1st was an American sterling silver tableware pattern, introduced in 1906 by the manufacturer, Reed & Barton, named after King Francis I of France. Production ended in 2019.
Towle Silversmiths is an American silver manufacturer.
Lunt Silversmiths was an American manufacturer of fine sterling, silver-plate and stainless steel flatware, holloware, and giftware established in 1902.
John Axel Prip, also known as Jack Prip (1922–2009), was an American master metalsmith, industrial designer, and educator. He was known for setting standards of excellence in American metalsmithing. His works and designs have become famous for bringing together the formal, technical tradition of Danish design into harmony with the American desire for innovation. Several of his designs for the Reed and Barton Company are still in production today.
A silver object that is to be sold commercially is, in most countries, stamped with one or more silver hallmarks indicating the purity of the silver, the mark of the manufacturer or silversmith, and other (optional) markings to indicate the date of manufacture and additional information about the piece. In some countries, a national assayer's office controls the testing of silver objects and marking of purity.
The Reed and Barton Complex is a historic industrial complex at West Brittania and Danforth Streets in Taunton, Massachusetts. It is the site of one of Taunton's first and largest industries, now known as Reed & Barton, a privately held silversmithing business that operated from 1824 to 2015. The company's success was instrumental in Taunton becoming known as the "Silver City". The complex was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.
Jens Harald Quistgaard was a Danish sculptor and designer, known principally for his work for the American company Dansk Designs, where he was chief designer from 1954 and for the following three decades.
Roden Brothers was a Canadian tableware design and manufacturing company. It was founded on June 1, 1891 in Toronto by Thomas and Frank Roden. In the 1910s the firm became known as Roden Bros. Ltd. and were later taken over by Henry Birks and Sons in 1953. Roden Bros Ltd.'s silver was supplied by the province of British Columbia and with it they produced a wide range of silver holloware and flatware in traditional English styles. The company offered a variety of flatware patterns that included Stratford, Queens, and Louis XV. Goldsmiths Stock Company were their exclusive selling agents from 1900 to 1922.
R. Wallace & Sons (1835–) was formed in Wallingford, Connecticut, and incorporated in 1879. As of 1893, this company manufactured silver and plated ware and cutlery and had about 600 employees.
Lewis Edwin Jenks was a noted American silversmith, active in Boston.
Poole Silver Company was an American silver manufacturing company, active in Taunton, Massachusetts from 1892 to 1971.
Anthony Rasch von Tauffkirchen was a German-American silversmith, active in Philadelphia (1804-1820) and New Orleans (1820-1858). According to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, his works are credited with being "among the most sophisticated silver vessels produced in the United States in the early nineteenth century."