Brand: Hotel Plate / Steamship Custom Order
Pattern: Fiddle Thread / Tipt Heart Variant
Material: Heavy Silverplate
Type: Large Oval Soup Spoon / Serving Spoon
Vessel: Steamer Perit (Spofford and Tileston Line)
Era: Civil War / Reconstruction Era (1860s)
Description
Up for sale is a rare piece of 19th-century maritime dining history: a heavy, hotel-grade silver-plated serving spoon custom stamped for the historical vessel STEAMER PERIT.
Historical Significance:
The Steamer Perit was an ocean-faring commercial steamship operating in the 1860s under the prominent New York shipping firm Spofford and Tileston, running passengers and cargo between New York, Mobile, and New Orleans. The vessel earned a major spot in military history in May 1869 when it was chartered for a covert filibustering expedition during Cuba's Ten Years' War. Under the command of former Confederate General Thomas Jordan, the Perit successfully ran a Spanish naval blockade to land a massive force of insurgents, 4,000 rifles, and vital ammunition on the Cuban coast, resulting in a landmark legal battle involving the U.S. Government and the ship's owners.
Spoon Details:
The handle front is clearly stamped "STEAMER PERIT" in crisp block lettering.
Features a French-inspired "Fiddle Thread" design variant, where the border lines meet to form an elegant heart shape at the tip. This heavy-gauge spoon was manufactured specifically for the ship's first-class dining saloon.
Condition: Authentic antique, pre-owned condition. The spoon is structurally sound with a thick, heavy commercial plating. It features an unpolished, dark aged tarnish and natural patina from decades of storage. No deep gouges or bends. A phenomenal crossover piece for collectors of steamship artifacts, shipwreck history, and Civil War or Cuban-American military memorabilia.
Selling as pictured 072326 GP