RICHARDS PATENT COMBINATION KNIFE, FORK AND SPOON — F. F. HASSAM, CUTLER, BOSTON

RICHARDS PATENT COMBINATION KNIFE, FORK AND SPOON — F. F. HASSAM, CUTLER, BOSTON

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$495.00

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Item Code: 1202-2417

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A complete two-piece Civil War soldier's eating set made under William H. Richards' patent of July 23, 1861 (U.S. Patent No. 32,916), this example carrying the additional stamp of the Boston cutler F. F. Hassam.

Richards set out to produce a simple, inexpensive knife, fork and spoon for camp use that could be fitted together when not in use, taking up as little room as possible in a soldier's knapsack. The design consists of two pieces of flat steel: a table knife, and a combination utensil with a spoon bowl at one end and three-tined fork at the other. The edges of each handle are turned down into flanges, which stiffen the grip and allow the two pieces to slide into one another as a compact unit that would not puncture a haversack on the march. Bought privately by new soldiers, or by the families and friends who outfitted them, rather than issued, the Richards set was among the most popular of the patented mess conveniences of the war.

The knife is stamped on the blade near the handle "RICHARDS / PATENT JULY 23 1861 / WARRANTED CAST STEEL," with a separate stamp beneath reading "F. F. HASSAM / CUTLER / BOSTON." The combination fork and spoon is stamped on the handle near the fork "RICHARDS / PATENT JULY 23 186[1]," the final digits weakly struck. Richards sets are encountered with several variant markings; the retailer's stamp of a named Boston cutler is among the less commonly seen.

Frederick Fitch Hassam was a Boston cutler and hardware merchant, by most accounts working under his own name in the 1850s, in partnership as Kingman & Hassam in the later 1850s, and from about 1861 with his brother Roswell as Hassam Brothers on Washington Street near the Old South Meeting House. The firm's premises were destroyed in the Great Boston Fire of November 1872. He was the father of the American Impressionist painter Childe Hassam.

Both pieces present and complete, and they nest together perfectly as designed. The steel shows a mottled gray surface with scattered darker staining and light salt-and-pepper pitting, with a few small spots of surface rust on the knife blade and in the spoon bowl. The knife markings are crisp and fully legible; the fork-spoon stamp is clear apart from the date. Tines straight and complete; flanges intact on both pieces. Each piece measures approximately 7 3/4 inches in length.

An identified-maker example of one of the best known soldier's mess sets of the Civil War, suited to any display of camp and personal equipment.   [ss][ph:L]

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