Silver maker
Towle Silversmiths marks
Towle grew out of the Moulton family silversmith shop in Newburyport, where apprentices Anthony F.
- Active
- 1882–present (as Towle Manufacturing Co. and successors)
- Based in
- Newburyport, Massachusetts, United States
- Marks listed
- 2
- Typical pieces
- sterling flatware, holloware
The marks, by date
Each mark’s wording is written out as a transcription: the words and line breaks, not a picture of the mark. Where a source describes a mark instead of quoting it, the description is shown in italics.
Trademark of a script T enclosing a lion.
History
Towle and William P. Jones formed Towle & Jones in 1857. Anthony Towle established the Towle Manufacturing Company in 1882, and the firm became a large maker of sterling flatware and holloware. It filed for bankruptcy protection in 1986, was bought by Syratech in 1990, and passed to Lifetime Brands with Syratech's other silver brands in 2006.
Dating clues
- Both sources date the lion-in-T trademark to about 1890, so it should not appear on earlier Towle work.
- A. F. Towle & Son of Greenfield, Massachusetts (1890–1902) was a separate offshoot that became Rogers, Lunt & Bowlen (later Lunt); its mark was an anchor with T&S.
Look-alikes and reproductions
- A. F. Towle & Son (Greenfield, MA), anchor and T&S mark – related family, different firm.
Other names on the marks
Towle Manufacturing Co.; Towle & Jones; A. F. Towle & Son
Where sources disagree: Wikipedia dates Towle's origins to William Moulton II in 1690; 925-1000 dates the company from 1882. We give 1882 for the Towle Manufacturing Co. and mention the Moulton roots only in general terms.
Sources
Marks help identify a maker and a date range, but they can’t prove a piece is genuine. Reproductions and later reissues can carry old marks. This entry isn’t an appraisal.