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| Industry | Jewellers and silversmiths |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1855, in Newark, New Jersey, United States |
| Products | Jewelry Tableware Gifts and Accessories Silver items |
William B. Kerr Co. was a manufacturer of jewelry, flatware and hollow-ware. Established in Newark, New Jersey in 1855, they are listed in the 1915 Edition of the Trademarks of the Jewelry and Kindred Trades as having been located at 144 Orange St.
Kerr's hallmark was a fasces - a single-bit axe with rods bound with straps. They used this trademark of a medieval axe from 1855 until 1892. Other hallmarks include a hammer, and three "X" marks. William B. Kerr & Co. newark, New Jersey Ca. 1880s - 1927 Well regarded for Art Nouveau jewelry, holloware and vanity items. Absorbed into Gorham in 1927. [1] [2]
Kerr was known for elaborate and unique Art Nouveau pieces, most especially the American Beauty series, as well as many different patterns of flatware and holloware for children featuring nursery rhymes and images.
William B. Kerr & Co was sold to Gorham Manufacturing Company. Gorham was purchased by Textron in 1967. Gorham was owned by Brown-Forman Corporation from 1991 to 2005 until it was sold to Department 56 in the Lenox holdings transaction.
Palladium is a chemical element with the symbol Pd and atomic number 46. It is a rare and lustrous silvery-white metal discovered in 1803 by the English chemist William Hyde Wollaston. He named it after the asteroid Pallas, which was itself named after the epithet of the Greek goddess Athena, acquired by her when she slew Pallas. Palladium, platinum, rhodium, ruthenium, iridium and osmium form a group of elements referred to as the platinum group metals (PGMs). They have similar chemical properties, but palladium has the lowest melting point and is the least dense of them.
Lenox Corporation is an American manufacturing company that sells tableware, giftware and collectible products under the Lenox, Dansk, Reed & Barton, and Gorham brands. For most of the 20th century, it was the most prestigious American maker of tableware, as well as making decorative pieces. Several 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.
A hallmark is an official mark or series of marks struck on items made of metal, mostly to certify the content of noble metals—such as platinum, gold, silver and in some nations, palladium. In a more general sense, the term hallmark can also be used to refer to any distinguishing characteristic.
William Robert Hamilton, nicknamed Sliding Billy, was an American professional baseball player in Major League Baseball (MLB) during the 19th-century. He played for the Kansas City Cowboys, Philadelphia Phillies and Boston Beaneaters between 1888 and 1901.
Newark Academy is a coeducational private day school located in Livingston, in Essex County, New Jersey, United States, serving students in sixth through twelfth grades. The school has been accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Elementary and Secondary Schools since 1928.
Tiffany & Co. is an American luxury jewelry and specialty retailer headquartered in New York City. It sells jewelry, sterling silver, china, crystal, stationery, fragrances, water bottles, watches, personal accessories, and leather goods. Tiffany is known for its luxury goods, particularly its diamond and sterling silver jewelry. It markets itself as an arbiter of taste and style. These goods are sold at Tiffany stores, and through direct-mail and corporate merchandising.
Vesta cases, or simply “vestas” are small boxes made to house wax, or "strike anywhere", matches. The first successful friction match appeared in 1826, and in 1832 William Newton patented the "wax vesta" in England. It consisted of a wax stem with embedded cotton threads and a tip of phosphorus. Newton named his matches after Vesta, the Roman goddess of fire and the hearth. Small containers to house these friction matches were introduced shortly afterwards, to guard against accidental combustion. In England these containers took their name from the term Newton used for his invention, and they became known as "vesta cases", "vesta boxes" or simply "vestas". In America the more prosaic yet more descriptive term "match safes" was chosen.
The CIE 1931 color spaces are the first defined quantitative links between distributions of wavelengths in the electromagnetic visible spectrum, and physiologically perceived colors in human color vision. The mathematical relationships that define these color spaces are essential tools for color management, important when dealing with color inks, illuminated displays, and recording devices such as digital cameras. The system was designed in 1931 by the "Commission Internationale de l'éclairage", known in English as the International Commission on Illumination.
The Gorham Manufacturing Company is one of the largest American manufacturers of sterling and silverplate and a foundry for bronze sculpture.
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 date of manufacture and additional information about the piece. In some countries, the testing of silver objects and marking of purity is controlled by a national assayer's office.
John Joseph O'Connor was an American prelate of the Catholic Church. He served as Bishop of Newark from 1901 until his death in 1927.
Joseph Harold Baum was an American restaurateur and innovator responsible for creating the country's first themed restaurants, including The Four Seasons Restaurant, Windows on the World, and the restored Rainbow Room. He was the first restaurateur to bring contemporary architects, artists and designers into his restaurant designs.
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. Roden Bros Ltd.'s mark included the word Sterling, followed by 925, an R and a lion passant. In addition to silver hollowware and flatware, Roden Bros. Ltd. produced cut crystal and medals. In 1974 Roden Bros. Ltd. published the book, Rich Cut Glass with Clock House Publications in Peterborough, Ontario, which was a reprint of the 1917 edition published by Roden Bros., Toronto.
Calcium monohydride is a molecule composed of calcium and hydrogen with formula CaH. It can be found in stars as a gas formed when calcium atoms are present with hydrogen atoms.
Chemical coloring of metals is the process of changing the color of metal surfaces with different chemical solutions.
Levison Brothers / California Jewelry Co. was active from 1859 to 1935. Founded in 1859, they occupied 629 Washington Street, San Francisco, California by 1863, and by 1871 moved into two floors of their own building at 134 Sutter Street, San Francisco, furnished with machinery, tools, and appliances powered by a 25-horsepower engine.
Leo Dee was an American artist and teacher. A native of Newark, New Jersey, he achieved first regional and then national prominence for his "incredibly detailed" and realistic silverpoint drawings which conveyed "the softest and most subtle transitions of tonal values."
William Christmas Codman was a prominent silver and jewelry designer for Gorham Manufacturing Company of Providence, Rhode Island.
Ann Orr Morris was an American silversmith, goldsmith, and enamelist. She died in her hometown of Athens, Georgia, the victim of a triple homicide.
