Historic Hood River
Community Silver
8-6-2021
Notes
The Laraway collection includes an assortment of glass lantern slides which would have been shown for advertisement before a movie at one of our local theaters. I’m not sure I follow the story in this one, but the artwork looks like it was influenced by “The Great Gatsby.”
kmb
Is W. F. Lavaway supposed to be Laraway? The image does lead one to wonder what is going on in this picture. Perhaps the woman is showing the man how nicely she has polished the silver? I first thought the woman might be the maid since she is wearing an apron, but not sure.
JKG
He has quite the stern look and is sitting like an interrogator. She's handing the spoon back after she took it because it was so nice, meanwhile rubbing his leg with her foot to get herself out of the pickle she's in.
L.E.
Community Silver was made by Oneida in New York.
Kyle
What a bizarre ad… which does not make me feel like buying silverware.
L.E.
I was unable to submit my first post. It must have had too many improper words in it. I learned about John Humphreys Noyes and his controversial communal ideas. When those failed, Oneida began production of silverware.
L.E.
Try searching John Humphreys Noyes and the Christian Utopia That Made Silverware for Proper Americans. The add might make a little more sense.
And remember, silverware was considered a gift for engaged couples.
L.E.
The word Polyamorous should go at the front of that title, but Arthur won't let me publish that word.
ArthurB
Sorry about that LE, but if you saw the thousand comments a day left by Eastern European bots you would understand!
L.E.
It was humorous trying to figure out how to post an article about the 1840's and get around the censorship of the 2020's.
nels
Arthur, this has got to be one of the stranger posting you have chosen, and the number of comments proves it, but nothing definitive due to the ambivalence of the illustration. Good Fun Friday choice!