American Silverplate ID

Does anyone have access to an 1880s Rockford Silver Plate Co. catalog to confirm if Design #781 was specifically marketed as a vanity towel/ring stand or if it had another catalog name?

Do you have the item you are asking about?

The ring at the top is stationary. I’ve been doing a lot of research and assume it was on a peice of furniture but just cant identify if it was a towel holder and ring basin for a wash stand or vanity or just a jewerly stand for a watch to display on. Its marked 781.

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Items marked with “Rockford Silver” and “Quadruple” are antique silver-plated pieces produced by the Rockford Silver Plate Company of Rockford, Illinois, between 1882 and 1925. “Quadruple” indicates they were coated with four times the standard amount of silver for increased durability.

This may sound absurd, but maybe it’s a cutlery drainer…
https://925-1000.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=142745#p142745
Stand for fireplace accessories? :wink:

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Thank you so much for that link that is very informative and interesting I’m going to have to spend some time reading through those. I honestly have no idea what this piece is :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes: it has me stumped

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Ecclesiastical silver plate made, as you suggest, by the Rockford Silver Plate Company.

"The monstrance is a decorative circular stand designed to hold the consecrated host for Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament during Eucharistic Adoration and Eucharistic
Processions. The host itself — the Body of Christ — is displayed in a glass-enclosed centerpiece called the luna.

Monstrances and ostensoriums are often richly decorated because they carry and display the Sacred Host. They are commonly sunburst in shape to symbolize the radiance of
Christ’s glory. The Latin words monstrare and ostendere both mean “to show.”

The ostensorium (ostensoria) is similar to the monstrance but does not touch the host. It holds the luna which is a smaller vessel that actually holds the host. The luna is then placed inside the ostensorium.

A monstrance and luna are essentially the same thing, a sacred vessel designed for direct contact with and to securely hold the Blessed Sacrament."

The entire item seems to be decorated with flowers, possibly daisies. There will be people on this forum far more familiar with Roman Catholic Church altar furnishings who can tell us more about the decoration and probably confirm the utility.

CRWW

I just did an AI search to fact check myself and was told categorically that the Rockford Company never made a monstrance or any other liturgical silver. If AI is right, and remember it relies entirely on what it can retrieve on the internet and not what is, then I am quite wrong and you do indeed have a towel rack for very small towels or something to place on the draining board and stack miniature silver cutlery in to dry.

But for now I’m sticking with monstrance.

CRWW

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Thank you so much for your research and information that is very interesting. It’s so hard to figure out because none of the 700 models have been documented or a catalogsurviving of them. I have searched through thousands of peices and have not yet found an identical one.

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And anyone who disagrees will be the target of your remonstrance. :wink:

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Quite the contrary. This forum is packed to the gunwales with useful knowledge and I daresay there is nobody posting who knows less about the tools and equipment used by churches in order to tend to their respective flocks than me.

So I was rather hoping I would trigger some constructive comment on why an otherwise entirely blameless, rather pedestrian electroplate wrangler would turn its hand to such an object.

As I am entirely unfamiliar with the props used by the Roman church. Indeed I have only once been inside such a place at the specific invite of a priest who, it turned out wanted to continue the previous evening’s discussion on the possibility of transubstantiation from the vantage point of his pulpit.

I rather gathered viva voce rebuttal wasn’t encouraged in the ranks of the RC’s and withdrew from the lists.

CRWW

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Other than me, that is. I was struck by a simultaneous encounter with two words - monstrances and ostensoria - that were not in my vocabulary at all. Clearly the sign of a misspent youth. :wink:

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