ESTATE - RARE
Sterling Cheese Knife /Pick in the RIBBON pattern, circa 1870, from John R. Wendt & Co.

Serving Piece. This is a highly ornate, very beautiful 7.5" Sterling Cheese Knife in the RIBBON pattern, circa 1870, from John R. Wendt & Co.

John R. Wendt is one of the most important of all nineteenth century American silversmiths.

ABOUT John R. Wendt & Co. New York, NY 1855-1870:
Makers of a small line of coin and sterling flatware and holloware, highly sought after today. Wendt flatware often contains only the retailer's mark.

HISTORY: The Boston partnership of Augustus Rogers and John Rudolph Wendt has been identified in several early silver references, including Hollis French's "A Silver Collector's Glossary" and "A List of Early American Silversmiths and their Marks".

By 1853 Wendt had formed a partnership, Rogers & Wendt, with Augustus Rogers, an established Boston silversmith. This partnership lasted until 1860, when Wendt was lured to New York by Ball, Black & Co., the important jewelry firm, to form a close manufacturer-retailer relationship similar to the relationship John C. Moore was developing with Tiffany & Co.

In the 1856 publication "Leading Pursuits and Leading Men", Edwin T. Freedley devoted nearly a page to the partnership of Augustus Rogers and John Wendt, noting that Wendt was ".... one of the best designers and chasers in the art."

Immigrant European master craftsmen such as John R. Wendt (1826-1907) from Germany trained American apprentices, who in turn dominated the industry.

By the 1870's the largest silver-making concerns employed hundreds of skilled workers and were located in southern New England and the New York City region.

The industry was led by Tiffany and Company, J. R. Wendt and Company, Whiting Manufacturing Company, and Wood and Hughes, all in New York City; Gorham Manufacturing Company in Providence, Rhode Island; Meriden Britannia Company in Meriden, Connecticut; and Reed and Barton in Taunton, Massachusetts.

Around the time of the Civil War Wendt was the most prominent maker of silver flatware in the country. The business was sold in two parts; Dies were sold to Adams & Shaw; the remainder of the business was sold to Whiting Mfg. Co.

Price: $179.

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