The Reed & Barton pitcher creates the same effect as hand-made Baltimore silver, but it uses none of the expensive hand work, and so cost a fraction of the price of an authentic piece of repoussé silver. Steel dies were created to stamp the pattern onto panels that were then soldered together, with four undecorated strips hiding the seams. 

Samuel Kirk & SOn

hand-chased

Reed & Barton

stamped

Silver plating helps hide all of the joints, giving the impression of one-piece construction. On the inside, this patchwork construction is obvious. But on the outside, it looks every bit as hand made and luxurious as the original silver it was replicating. 

Old Colony History Museum

Patenting

Reed & Barton designer W.C. Beattie patented the ”repoussé” pitcher design. A utility patent protects a technology, a system, or how something works (for example the rotating hinge on a cake basket). A design patent only protects how something looks. It was common for companies to register their designs at this time, partly to protect them from copying, but also partly to promote their reputation as innovators.

A.G. Schultz

Leland Little

In this case there is not much innovative about the design; it is just copying the look of Baltimore silver. But there is a lot of innovation in how the items were produced (with complex steel dies, innovative construction details, electro silver plating), all in service of making a popular aesthetic more affordable. Those elements would be difficult to link to the patent system with a utility patent; they represent smart use of existing technologies and clever business practices, but not anything patentably distinct. 

Reed & Barton Utility Patent, 1879

However, the design, even though it references existing creations, was considered novel enough to qualify for a design patent, and the teapot for this set was granted US Design Patent number 9,405 on July 24, 1876.

Reed & Barton 

Yale Art Gallery

Reed & Barton Design Patent, 1876

Baker Library, Harvard Business School

Photography

glass plate negative

Attleboro Industrial Museum

Through the 1860s Reed & Barton developed an entire photography department and used photography to record designs, produce salesmen’s catalogs, and create images to transfer into engravings for printing in advertisements and catalogs.

Sales Tools

Baker Library, Harvard Business School

This is a common practice today. But in an era when most images were engravings, Reed & Barton’s early use of photography offered a better, and more successful option. Because the nation’s railroad system was also expanding at this time, along with a related increase in hotels near all the new stations, Reed & Barton’s traveling sales force became a crucial part of the business, as it sold goods to more types of customers in ever-farther locations. 

The production of catalogs with highly detailed photographs of available goods allowed salesmen to travel across the United States and around the world, seeking new customers. Armed with a suitcase of assorted samples, or even just fragments, to show quality and surfaces, and a photographic catalog showing the entire range of items, a salesman could then send orders back to the factory. 

Baker Library, Harvard Business School

Salesmen were quick to realize that these trains and hotels also needed a supply of durable metal tableware, and whole new divisions of the company were created to address those markets.

The Price of Etiquette

napkin ring, butter dish, and nut dish

Old Colony History Museum

Old Colony History Museum