The Schofield Company (1903–1977) (aka Herr-Schofield, aka the Baltimore Silversmiths Manufacturing Company) was a Baltimore area silver company, whose best known pattern was Baltimore Rose.
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Founder
Frank M. Schofield was born in 1871 to Allen and Ann (née Bradley) Schofield, in Providence, Rhode Island. (Frank Schofield was the great-great-grandson of John Schofield, an English Silversmith in London 1740–1772.)
Background
In 1891, at the age of 20, Frank Schofield started an apprenticeship at The Gorham Mfg. Co. in Providence. In some silver books written by scholarly authors, it has been erroneously written that Frank Schofield cut the dies for the original Stieff Rose or, as it was known then, Maryland Rose. As that pattern debuted in 1892, the second year of Schofield's apprenticeship at Gorham, in Rhode Island, one can see that those stories are wrong. At Gorham, Schofield learned die cutting and silversmithing.
In 1899, after finishing his apprenticeship at Gorham, Frank Schofield moved to Baltimore, Maryland. After working for four years for Charles C. Stieff at The Baltimore Sterling Silver Company in Baltimore (aka The Stieff Company), he struck off on his own, founding The Baltimore Silversmiths Manufacturing Company in 1903. His first shop was on Pleasant Street in Baltimore. The city directory for 1903 shows him as a die cutter, so there is a good chance that while at Balt. Sterling SIlver Co. (Stieff) he did cut later dies for the Rose pattern – just not the original dies. Frank Schofield's first pattern was BALTIMORE ROSE, a pattern very close to Maryland Rose, made by his former employer.
Early business must have been good for Frank Schofield, and in 1905 he was able to buy the failing business of long time Baltimore Silversmiths C. Klank & Sons. Later in 1905, he partnered with a K. Herr, and the company name changed to Heer-Schofield. 1912 directories show the business at 618 Lombard in Baltimore. Mr. K. Herr is a bit of a mystery man, as no history of him can be found except for a notation in a 1909 Baltimore directory, and even then his address is given as the "corner of Ridgewood and Garrison Ave."
On June 25, 1913, Frank M. Schofield married Bertha Kline Tarbeau, a woman 14 years his junior (born 1885). Bertha would become an accomplished silversmith herself, a rarity in the day for a woman. Bertha was the daughter of circus performers with Ringling Brothers. A trapeze artist and bareback horse rider for three years in the circus, she met Frank Schofield while performing a vaudeville show the Maryland Theater in Baltimore.
1915 would bring the purchase of the tools and dies of long time Baltimore silversmiths JENKINS & JENKINS, which dated back to 1871. Heer-Schofield would start using the 1871 as the founding date of the company, which was the same year Frank Schofield was born.
By 1922 Herr-Schofield was located at 308-10 St. Paul St. in Baltimore. Mr. Herr appears to be long gone from the business.
A 1927 catalog of flatware patterns and hollowware was produced.
In 1928, the company name was changed to FRANK M. SCHOFIELD Co. An updated catalog of patterns was offered, and again in 1929.
1930 would bring a move to a new building build for the purpose of silversmithing and retail. The new four-story building was located at the corner of Pleasant and Charles Street, Baltimore. The name of the company changed again, this time to The Schofield Company.
The Schofield Company survived the depression. During WWII, they took on government contracts as most companies did.
On June 27, 1947, Frank M. Schofield died. Schofield was a member of Rotary, The Elks, St. Georges Society, the Masons and the Scottish Rite Temple and was 73 years old when he died.
After Frank Schofield’s death, his wife Bertha ran the company until 1965. This was rare in a day when the silver business was a predominately male industry. Bertha herself was an accomplished silversmith, learning the trade after her marriage to Frank. She sold the Schofield Company to Oscar Caplan in 1965, but remained with the firm as a silversmith until 1967, when the Caplans sold Schofield to The Stieff Company.
Bertha Schofield retired in 1967, and died on August 24, 1972, while attending a private luncheon at the Green Spring Valley Inn (Baltimore). She was 87 years old. She had called herself the world’s oldest female silversmith. She and Frank had no children.
The Stieff Company continued to make Schofield's patterns until 1977. By then, the dies were wearing out and there was not enough need to warrant new dies being cut.
The Stieff Company itself is long gone. Stieff acquired S. Kirk & Son in 1979, changing the name of the company to Kirk-Stieff Company. That business was sold to Lenox in 1990. Lenox sold the Kirk-Stieff name to Lifetime Sterling in 2007.