Artifact Detectives – The Case of the Buried Spoon

by Laura Stagliola, FHC Museum Assistant/Education Coordinator

August 26, 2016

The other day the Framingham History Center received an inquiry about an old spoon that was found by an 11-year-old girl in her back yard. Her mother was asking if she could bring her daughter Carla in to learn more about the spoon. While we do receive a fair amount of historical inquires, this was one special. Carla was helping her parents with some yard work and came upon the spoon while raking. Her parents assumed it was from the 1950s as their home was built in 1959. However, after some research here we learned that the street was developed in 1945 and it is possible that the spoon was from then.

Carla came to the Old Academy with her Mom, Dad, and younger sister and we discussed how the spoon could have ended up in her back yard and who might have owned it before it was lost. She thought that someone might have been digging in the dirt with it and had forgotten to bring it back inside. Her parents thought it might have been from a load of dirt that was trucked in for fill. The spoon was bent and oxidized but it had a beautiful flower design all the way around the handle. On the back there was a small space for where the label had been stamped. The green-gray tarnish that covered the entire spoon, except for a circle of what looked to be silver, had filled in the stamp so we could not read the label.

Ruthann, a volunteer researcher at the FHC, also inspected the spoon and after seeing the tarnish-free circle, began researching the type of metal it could be. She concluded that this kind of oxidation happened to silver-plated spoons. While this did not mean much to Carla, it was a step closer to identifying the spoon’s age and make.

We were able to rub some of the stubborn tarnish away and we could start to see letters emerge. I quickly took out a magnifying glass and could read COMMUNEY. It did not sound like a manufacturer’s name, but Ruthann went to Google and immediately we found Community/Oneida Silversmiths with an image of the same floral design as was on the handle. This silver plated serving spoon that Carla unearthed was in the Coronation 1936 pattern[1]. Carla was excited to hear it was from 1936 and she did the math to find out that her spoon was 80 years old! Pleased with her knowledge of the spoons’ age, Carla seemed equally excited to give her family a tour of the museum. Having been inside the Academy as a 3^rd grader, she took on the role of “junior docent” with great gusto! It was wonderful to have Carla and her family visit the Framingham History Center and it was a fun to interact with this budding young historian!

[1] Origin of the Coronation 1936 patter. From a blog titled “Silver Threads, Silverplated Flatware,” came this explanation:

In 1936 Edward VIII became King of England upon the death of his father. Before his coronation could take place, however, he abdicated the throne to marry Wallis Simpson. His younger brother, George VI (father of the present Queen Elizabeth) was crowned in his place. In the same year, Oneida introduced a pattern named Coronation in its line of Community silverplate. This same pattern was marketed in the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth as Hampton Court.