Farm hunt, my best silver find of the year!

Digger_O'Dell

New member
Hi all,
I got a little hunt in this morning around the farm in some area I recently cleared and made some interesting finds. The first couple hits were an odd figure 8 piece with tabs on the back. If anyone has any ideas what this may be, love to hear back. The next piece was a round brass piece with a hanger wire in the center, stamped "Brass Tubular No. 10". Research found that it's the top to a barn lantern made in 1879.

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Brass tubular no 10.jpg
This is what the complete lantern looks like

Nothing much else in that area so I moved to the ramp to the upper level of the barn. Along one edge I got a goofy signal that bounced around but typically was seeing a 5-34/36 range. I was going to skip it as trash but something in the back of my mind said "dig it!", and this is what I came up with

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At first I figured it was more trash, probably part of another can that are littering the property. But i brushed away some dirt and saw engraved leaves-nope, not junk!
After more cleaning and some gentle demangling I got a better idea. Turms out its a monogrammed silver napkin ring dated 1873!

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If anyone can decipher the initials I would greatly appreciate it.

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My plan is to try taking it to a reputable jeweler and try to get it restored.
 
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Very nice find. We don't see those much on the forum and if you do decide to take it to a jeweler please post a picture of it restored.
 
Update: Dropped the napkin ring off at silversmiths. Verified that though it doesn't have a halmark it is sterling silver! Bad news is that they don't know how good they can fix it. The guy who specializes in the repairs and restorations is on vacation this week. Have to call them next Tuesday for an estimate.
 
Great silver piece Chris :cheering:!! any item that has a year or date purposely placed on it is a special find in my book :smitten:!! huge congrats , I'm sure the silversmith will turn that piece around , great find !!

hey congrats on your first ox shoe :thumbsup01:
 
Nice silver piece. Interesting that it had a date for being a napkin ring. Wondering what the significance.... wedding or something? Grats on first ox shoe. It took you longer than it took me to find one of those things... Obvi it'd be a pointless competition when an ox shoe is the prize. lol. (Sorry Drew, no offense).
 
Lol Jim,
I certainly wasnt looking for the ox shoe. Actually have iron discriminated out. But was getting a repeatable high peep I couldn't help but dig. Not what I was expecting but I'm happy. I really had no idea there were much for oxen here in Wi.
 
Congrats on the oxshoe!!! The other stuff is okaaaay but that oxshoe :smitten: :lol:
I do also like the infinity symbol ;)
Lastly, I agree with Dave, it says May. It is a baby gift. They must have had a kid named May. The napkin holder also sometimes came with small cups and spoons. Wonderful find. Maybe you could check out the national census to see her name. :clapping:
 
Well you don't see napkin holders very often. I like that. Hopefully you will update with the repaired piece. Congrats
 
Wow! Nice hunk of silver! :wow:
Like the others have said, that's something you don't see posted very often.
Great find!
Congrats! :grin:
 
Been doing some research and have come up with a big "maybe" on the provenance of the napkin ring. The 1892 plat of the farm (the only old one I can find) shows the land owner as a James Mahoney. I can't narrow it down much more than that to earlier ownership. But i did find a 1900 census showing a James Mahoney married to Minnie Mahoney. Minnie's date of birth is 1873. But we're born in Canada, his parents were from Cork county Ireland. I don't know if May could be Minnie? Also, in 1900 their residence was about 300 miles North near Canada. Maybe the farm was sold by then and they returned North near family?
It shows the immigration date as 1883 which is about when the farm was built. The other thing that fits is that I found historically is that engraved silver napkin rings were the rage as christening gifts last half of the 1800s.
 
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Congrats on the silver Chris, and with a name and date to boot! Always fun going back and trying to research old relics. The "8" could be just that, the number eight for the side of the house or barn (address etc). The relative flat nature of the object and the pin attachments on back would at least suggest that possibility. I've found several of those over the years. Thanks for posting.

John
 
Very cool find, great research! Looking forward to seeing it when you get it back!


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