Born near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Samuel Bell (1798–1882) began his employment in metalworking there at age fourteen, crafting swords for the War of 1812. In 1821 he moved south to Knoxville, Tennessee, and began a long career as a silversmith and retailer. Bell served as mayor of Knoxville for two terms (1840–41, 1844–45) before debt issues forced him to sell his business and move his family to Texas in 1851. Of his thirteen children, all born in Tennessee, five are known to have taken up their father’s trade in San Antonio. In San Antonio, the Bell firm was initially established by Bell’s sons James G. and David, becoming J. G. & D. Bell; in 1860 the partnership’s name changed to Bell & Brothers. This shift made younger sons Powhattan and James M. Bell partners with David and removed James G. Bell’s name from the firm. James G. Bell left San Antonio in 1854 on a cattle drive to California, where he joined Edward C. Bell, likely an older brother, who worked as a jeweler in Mariposa, California. The Bells produced and retailed a wide variety of wares in San Antonio. An 1855 advertisement listed the firm as “manufacturers of all articles in their line. Dentists Plates prepared and Jewelry repaired...Saddles, Bridles, and Walking Canes mounted with gold and silver in the best style.” On the same page, a separate advertisement listed articles newly arrived for retail, including pens, spectacles, French clocks with glass shades, and assorted jewelry and fancy goods. Through all of the Bells’ iterations, advertisements offered essentially these same wares and services. The best-known silver forms produced by the Bell family include knives, cups, and flatware. In the 1890s the firm failed and was sold out of the Bell family. Renamed the Bell Jewelry Company in 1895, this final phase of the Bell family’s business legacy remained in operation until 1961.

Bell & Brothers flatware transcends the conventional fiddle-handle pattern, transforming it into one that is notable for its distinctive shape and substantial weight.

Related examples: This fork is originally from a set of five; the other examples are in Houston private collections (Warren 1996, p. 731). See also Steinfeldt and Stover 1973, pp. 170–71, nos. 206, 207.

Book excerpt: David B. Warren, Michael K. Brown, Elizabeth Ann Coleman, and Emily Ballew Neff. American Decorative Arts and Paintings in the Bayou Bend Collection. Houston: Princeton Univ. Press, 1998.