Another Columbian Exposition spoon...

Outhaul

...to add to my collection. I had no idea there were so many different designs!



Cheers,

Bob

Leiana

Wow! That's really beautiful.

Thanks for sharing!

-Amanda

MRK

Very nice spoon. This is actually the official souvenir spoon of the Columbian Exposition, produced by the Alvin Manufacturing company. There were hundreds of different spoons sold at the fair. Many of these spoons had different designs in the bowls as well, such as the buildings of the fair, advertisements, etc. With all of these varieties, the number of different spoons surpasses 1,000. The Salem Witch spoon was the first spoon sold as a souvenir spoon in 1891. Sales were so high, several manufacturers jumped on the bandwagon for an opportunity to make money selling spoons. The Columbian Exposition provided the perfect environment for companies to sell their spoons. The fair marked the first time that souvenir spoons were sold on such a large scale.

Outhaul

Hey MRK, thanks for the info! I hadn't gotten that deep yet. I was still searching for a web page or illustrated book of all the Columbian Expo spoons.

Cheers,

Bob

MRK

World's Fair Spoons
Volume One
The Columbian Exposition

This book is from Chris McGlothlin of Florida Rare Coin Galleries and shows hundreds of spoons from the fair and early Chicago with some good information. There's usually one or two for sale on Amazon between $40 and $60. I've only seen 3 on ebay in the past year and a half.

numisma

Cool info MRK. Thanks. The 1892 World's Fair must have been a HUGE event, based on all of the souvenirs that exist. I think there's more from this fair than the 1982 Knoxville event.

DUIGUY

Anything Columbian has my interest ! Nice ship !!

MRK

I would guess that the book is about 90% complete. I 've managed to purchase a few Columbian Expo spoons not in the book, but I'm sure it took a few years and lots of travel for the author to find those that are in the book. My personal opinion is that about 50 of these spoons are common and easy to find, most of them are rare, and a few I'll probably never see surface. An example would be a set of ice cream spoons made by Tiffany and Co. which is unique, possibly on display at the fair where thay had an exhibit of their products.

WoodenJefferson

Any idea of the original selling price of those spoons to the visitors, never knew they even exsisted til this posting. I know the Columbian Eposition Commorative halves sold for $1.00 apiece.

I have 2 nice examples of the halves

92 in MS-65
93 in MS-64

I also have a 92 with machine doubling on the reverse,
you do a double take with that one.

MRK

I've managed to collect a few of the ads from magazines prior to the fair. The selling price of the spoons averaged well under $1. Many were sold for 25-30 cents. I just got an ad a few weeks back from an 1892 Farm and Home magazine advertising one of the Columbian Expo spoons for 35 cents, and the spoon + a one year subscription to the magazine would be 65 cents.

WoodenJefferson

Thanks for the reply...the ratio for $1.00 in 1892 = about $25-30 by today's standard, serious money back then.
So, even .35 would be like laying down $8.75 at the the time.

Outhaul

I found the book on Amazon, ordering today.