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.

J. G. & D. Bell retailed the dinner fork while it was in business between 1851 and 1860. The brothers James G. and David operated a storefront on Main Street near the Main Plaza in San Antonio. A number of advertisements printed in the San Antonio Ledger during that time show that they retailed an extensive range of goods, such as jewelry, silverware, watches, diamonds, and jewels. An invoice dated October 21, 1857, documents the purchase from J. G. & D. Bell of seven engraved teaspoons by Col. Jose Antoni Navarro, a signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence, and a friend of Stephen F. Austin.