The Pacific Lumber Co. Hotel Silver 8 oz Sugar Bowl Scotia California Meriden B For Sale

The Pacific Lumber Co. Hotel Silver 8 oz Sugar Bowl Scotia California Meriden B
The Pacific Lumber Co. - Scotia, California - 1890\'s to early 1900\'s era - Hotel Silver Sugar Bowl - Marked on the Bottom with the Lumber Company\'s Name - T.P.L.Co.\"
Offered for your consideration is an extremely rare 1890\'s to early 1900\'s 2-3/4\" Tall, 5-3/4” wide (from the side across the handles) silver plate sugar bowl that I strongly believe was made for The Pacific Lumber Company\'s hotel or company cafeteria that was located at Scotia, California, at the company\'s main plant and company town.
In the past many years of collection hotel silver and rare restaurant ware, I have only seen this pattern marked for The Pacific Lumber Co. on silver plate just a couple of other times. I\'m positive not much of it was ever made with these markings, along with, hardly any of it even surviving today.
If you collect historic rare Scotia antiques, historical lumber company - milling operations, or high-end restaurant ware / hotel silver, you might want to at least consider this rarity for your collection.
Historically, The Pacific Lumber Company started operations in 1863 by Simon J. Murphy, Sr., and become one of the largest lumber - timber wood milling operations in California under the control of the Simon family for several years.
The company also had its own company town named Scotia, California, which had originally been named Forestville. Scotia had an entire residential - business community established by the company for it then multitude of workers. The mill, which had been established in 1882, at Scotia was very large with lumber milling and log storage there. So large and important was the mill, that the company actually provided guided tours during the 20th Century of it to those coming to Scotia to see the operations.
By 1900 and in order to support all the workers at the sawmill, shingle mill, and many other shop / mill operations at the mill location, Scotia had its own company hotel, a saloon, 48 homes (all with running water), a company store, a dairy / creamery, a meat market, and the company cookhouse - cafeteria - restaurant. The company hotel dining room or the company cookhouse - cafeteria / restaurant is where I strongly believe is from where this sugar bowl would have been used at.Scotia was located 28 miles south of Eureka, California, and only 244 north of San Francisco.
It appears the early markings for the company were \"T.P.L.CO.\", but sometimes by the 1920\'s or so, more usage of the P.A.L.CO - PALCO initials were used.
The company\'s railroad was incorporated in 1882 at the Humboldt Bay and Eel River Railroad, but most of the locomotives and cars, etc., were marked \"T.P.L.Co.\". The railroad was used to transport lumber from the Scotia sawmill to Humboldt Bay for loading aboard steamship and even barges. The railroad was completed across the Scotia Bluffs to Alton, California in 1885 where a connection was made with the Eel River and Eureka Railroad for the remainder of the distance to Humboldt Bay. The railroad was extended southward up the Eel River from Scotia to bring timber into the sawmill there.
In May of 1903, The Atchison Topeka & Santa Fe Railway merged The Pacific Lumber Company railway operations (not including trackage into the mills) into their subsidiary San Francisco and Northwestern Railway. But, the The Pacific Lumber Company retained the land underlying the now Santa Fe\'s right of way along with the timber rights and the ability to use the line for their logging operations. The SF&NW Railroad became part of the Northwestern Pacific Railroad in 1907. But, there were clearly marked TPLCo locomotives and rolling stock clearly marked for the railroad all throughout the 20th Century for working the tracks and yards of the actual mills.
The company also had extensive timber holdings exceeding well over 200,000 acresin the Redwood and Douglas-Fir forests of Humboldt County. For generations, it was one of the largest private employers in the entire region, appropriately known as the Redwood Empire.Secondary mills of the era when this sugar bowl was made and used included nearby Fortuna and Carlotta, California.
This sugar bowl was made circa 1890\'s to early 1900\'s by the International Silver Co. with their Meriden Silver Co. backstamp. Meriden was one of the first companies that became part of the International Silver Co. in 1898. Many of the early wears of this era had this double named backstamp for both Meriden and International. This backstamp was replaced by the International Silver Co. single name a few years later.
The sugar bowl is the heavyweight type steamship, restaurant, and railroad silver soldered - silver plate and glassware. This bowl would have been made for usage (in what I strongly believe) was either the company\'s hotel at Scotia for the dining room service, or at the company cafeteria that was located at Scotia. It would have been used in connection with the TPLCO hotel china and glassware for table service.
It does have silver plate wear, scratches, some pitting, some minor indentations, etc., that are all associated from actual usage that one would expect to see of such early hotel type silver that was used in the logging dining operations. It has no lid.
This piece is being offered in the original condition in which I was fortunate to have been able to obtain it in. For me, it has a very nice overall patina that looks great. Should you wish to properly clean it, it should look even better. However, I have elected to leave it in the original condition, as many collectors prefer it this way or want to clean it themselves.

You may wish to consider adding this lovely piece of history to your hotel silver, silver soldered, heavyweight type steamship, hotel silver, or restaurant ware collection.