Tuesday, September 29, 2009

My Hallmark






My trademark has been registered with the US Patent Office since 1973. Since my early enthusiasm was strictly for large silver objects such as goblets, boxes and tea services I though it would be a good idea to mark any piece I made with a stamp which could be traced in later years back to a little known silversmith working in Newport RI. I had visions of grandeur beyond belief.


Its kind of a funny looking thing, sort of looks like a curvilinear stick figure with horned head. It evolved directly from my candle making days, yes I said "candle making". The mark is a combination of my atrological sign (did I say I started in the 70's?), Aries, and the chinese symbol (found on a calendar from a local take out shop) for the first day of April (born a fool). These two elements came together in my kitchen as I tried to design a mark for the candles I was making for the local head/craft shops. I had no work so I was making psychedleic candles in my apartment and I though it would be extremely cool, far out, groovy, etc. to have a stamp I could press into the botttom of my candles to identify them as the genuine article, what ever that might be.


The candel venture was was not particularly lucrative and soon after I began working in sterling silver so it was natural that I use this mark as my silversmithing trademark. When I started designing and making jewelry, the mark was used for the smaller articles as well.

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