A very good example of the popular, privately purchased patent mess set by Worman and Ely personalized by a soldier determined not to let any of it get away from him by adding his initials, “P V R” to each of the three elements. Soldiers were issued their mess gear by the recruiting services and early in the war this was largely a state matter, so there are quite a few different designs obtained by contract or by open-market purchases. On top of that, there were a number of patent types, like this set, that promised convenience and compactness, with no separate pieces to lose or poke through one’s haversack that were purchased by new soldiers or given to them by family and well-wishers.

This version was patented by L.H. Worman and J.O. Ely of Philadelphia on February 4, 1862, though patent documents make clear the designer was likely a Phillip Ulmer, who then assigned what were in fact two patents filed the same day, to himself and to Worman and Ely, either as partners or his agents. The set is complete and in very good condition, with all of its pieces: a fork and knife with hollow metal handles and a spoon with slotted handle that could hold the fork and knife. The patent for the first two specifies the handles were made of sheet metal, “shaped so as to be wholly closed and hollow…” That for the spoon specifies the handle, “has an aperture, and is bent in such a manner as to admit the handle of a knife and the tines of a fork fitting into flanges on the side of the handle…” These are smooth metal,

showing as a muted steel gray with some thin stains and darker gray spots on the knife blade and fork tines, with the rest as a pewter gray. As is correct, the fork is unmarked, but the knife blade and spoon handle have patent markings: “WORMAN & ELY / PHIL’A / PAT’D. FEB 4, 1862,” woth the knife blade having all three lines straight and the spoon showing the top line in an arc. Please see our photos.

The soldier scratched his initials into each piece, “PVR.” He tried to keep them neat and made an effort to imitate thick down strokes and thin upstrokes and curves of a pen. Needless to say, there are rather too many candidates to choose from in identifying him. Only about eight soldiers show up with those initials, but there are scores more not identified by any middle initial in readily available records and they cannot be eliminated. Nevertheless, it is a very nice bit of personalization of his gear and would show off very nicely in a display, as well as being a sign of real field use.  [sr][ph:L]

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