Founded 1835 (1835) | ||
Headquarters Wallingford, Connecticut, United States Area served Predominately the United States Key people Robert Wallace, F.A. Wallace, H.L. Wallace Products Silver and plated ware, cutlery | ||
R. Wallace & Sons (born 1835) was formed in Wallingford, Connecticut and incorporated in 1879. As of 1893, this company manufactured silver and plated ware and cutlery and had about 600 employees.
In 1887, William Hale Beckford in Leading business men of New Haven county described the company, "The valuable plant of the company is one of the most complete and extensive of its kind in the United States, the buildings being substantially built of brick, two and three stories in height, and covering an area of several acres of ground."
Over the years, the Wallace companies had three names: R. Wallace & Sons (-1956), Wallace Brothers Silver Company (1956-1984) and Wallace Silversmiths (founded 1875) Unique for the area, the Wallace companies did not become part of the International Silver Company and maintained its independence.
Many designs by R. Wallace & Sons, especially Modern ones, have been collected by American museums including the Dallas Museum of Art, Wolfsonian FIU in Miami Beach, and the Mint Museum in Charlotte, NC, In 2005-07, Modernist silver designs by R. Wallace & Sons were featured in a traveling museum exhibition (Dallas Museum of Art; the Smithsonian in Washington; Wolfsonian FIU in Miami Beach; Nevada Museum of Art, Reno; and The Dixon Gallery and Gardens, Memphis). The designs have also been shown in exhibitions at the Dallas Museum of Art (2016–17), a traveling show organized by the Cleveland Museum of Art (1959–60) with six additional venues in Dallas, Dayton, Minneapolis, Portland (OR), St. Louis and San Francisco. In the 1930s, R. Wallace & Sons designs were included in exhibitions at the Brooklyn Museum and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.