Some notes from The Treasure of Alpheus Winterborn (1978), particularly the titular character's silverware company.
The book's namesake got rich from his company, which employed half the people in Hoosac, making silver-plated objects like knives, forks, tea strainers, Edam Cheese holders, and so on. It is said that Winterborn’s silverware company was famous nationwide, like the 1847 Rogers Brothers, and made its owner a millionaire.
First, a few words on the Rogers Brothers – Asa, Simeon, and William – of Hartford, Connecticut. Their most popular product was the 1847 Rogers Bros. flatware; Centennialantiques.com notes that many novice collectors mistakenly believe that all 1847 Rogers Bros. products date from that year or consists of solid silver:
The technique of electroplating a thin coat of silver over a base metal became feasible in the 1840s. The base metal selected for flat tableware was usually nickel silver, a misnomer which actually contained no silver but was an alloy of nickel, zinc and copper. The brothers were known for the high quality of their wares and when they felt they had perfected the electroplating process in 1847 they marked their product with their name.
So was Winterborn’s silverware company modeled on something back in Marshall or maybe even up in Winona? Perhaps not.
Fan Jon Caulkett, himself from Michigan, said that Albion, a slightly larger town twenty minutes east of Marshall, was once renowned for its foundries, though they are all pretty much closed now. “A quick run through some of the historical articles on the city’s home page doesn't show that any of them made silverware, but the big town celebration is the ‘Festival of the Forks,’ so called because the two branches of the Kalamazoo River come together there.”
It is noted that besides silverware the Winterborn factory also did casting, the manufacturing process where liquid material is poured into a mold. The mold contorts the hardening liquid into a desired shape. The weather vane atop the library was constructed through this process. Another Bellairsian item created through similar process was the statue of Saint Fidgeta in Italy, fashioned by the Catholic Casting Company of Chicago.
Links:
Silvercollecting.com
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