Family Silver - Grandad Rice worked in Seattle for Linstead Silversmiths
Older Family Silver - Grandad Rice as a silversmith in Victoria BC
More on Family Silver - this post
I reported before on Grandad Rice. As noted here, he worked as a silversmith in Victoria, and later moved on to work at Linstead Silver, as discussed here. However, there is still MORE to the story.
As you may see from the photo below, Linstead Silver had more than one name. In fact, Grandad Rice appeared in an ad from it in 1959.
Actually as shown in the ad above, the shop was on 1020 Pike. It was, indeed, torn down when I-5 was built. The site today is shown in the photo at left. Across from the site today are multi-story apartment buildings. The earlier post, here, shows the newer location, including a virtual tour of the interior.
The place on Aurora has nothing to do with Linstead. Instead, it is the current incarnation of his competitor, Zapffe Silversmiths. Their website is here.
Separately, on January 4, 2017, Steve A received the following email from Zapffe Silversmiths:
Older Family Silver - Grandad Rice as a silversmith in Victoria BC
More on Family Silver - this post
I reported before on Grandad Rice. As noted here, he worked as a silversmith in Victoria, and later moved on to work at Linstead Silver, as discussed here. However, there is still MORE to the story.
As you may see from the photo below, Linstead Silver had more than one name. In fact, Grandad Rice appeared in an ad from it in 1959.
The ad was from the November 22, 1959 issue of The Seattle Sunday Times, page 78. In another issue, the Times interviewed Carl Linstead and he talked about some of the various jobs the shop had. He didn't say if the hamburger they were asked to silver plate was from Dick's Hamburgers or some other outfit. Inquiring minds want to know!
The interview with Linstead is also included. If you run across an old set of bronzed baby shoes at a garage sale, there's a good chance it came from Linstead Silver.
The second article was from The Seattle Times issue of Wednesday, April 4, 1956, on page 23. FWIW, Seattle Times archives dating back to 1895 are available from the Seattle Public Library.
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Linstead's First Store on 1020 Pike Street
On August 13, via "Blogger Contact," Lucille Averill suggested:
"The shop was on about 9th? which was torn down to become part of the
freeway. From there the store moved to the newer location in downtown
Seattle. It's now on Aurora Avenue"
Actually as shown in the ad above, the shop was on 1020 Pike. It was, indeed, torn down when I-5 was built. The site today is shown in the photo at left. Across from the site today are multi-story apartment buildings. The earlier post, here, shows the newer location, including a virtual tour of the interior.The place on Aurora has nothing to do with Linstead. Instead, it is the current incarnation of his competitor, Zapffe Silversmiths. Their website is here.
Separately, on January 4, 2017, Steve A received the following email from Zapffe Silversmiths:
"Hello. We know we had a Linstead (possibly Carl) who worked here in the late 40's and early 50's. He worked alongside Carl Zapffe and his successor Don Thompson before opening his own shop in downtown Seattle which was then taken over by a son. It shortly closed after his succession. That is all the information we have.
Store Hours:
Monday thru Friday 9:00 am to 5:30 pm
Saturday 9:00 am to 1:00 pm
Store address:
Zapffe Silversmiths
12004 Aurora Ave North
Seattle, Washington 98133
206-364-1919 Phone
800-544-9313 Toll Free
206-364-1782 Fax"
Linstead and Zapffe in Later Times
Prompted by an inquiry from Kath Whitworth, I did a bit more digging in archives of the Seattle Times. There, I found that Carl Linstead and Carl Zapffe both passed away within a couple of years of Grandad Rice. Both articles shed more light on the silver business in Seattle in the mid 20th Century.
First, I ran across an obituary for Carl Linstead in the June 15, 1971 issue of the Seattle Times on page 39.
Prompted by an inquiry from Kath Whitworth, I did a bit more digging in archives of the Seattle Times. There, I found that Carl Linstead and Carl Zapffe both passed away within a couple of years of Grandad Rice. Both articles shed more light on the silver business in Seattle in the mid 20th Century.
First, I ran across an obituary for Carl Linstead in the June 15, 1971 issue of the Seattle Times on page 39.
As you can see, he is a fellow alumnus of Roosevelt High School - GO ROUGHRIDERS, BEAT HALE! More relevant to our story, however, is that he went to work for Zapffe around 1923 when that firm was only about 7 years old, and worked there until 1946. The article didn't mention that, during his career, Linstead created such things as a silver crown for the 1959 Seattle Lucia Festival that was modeled after a medieval example. Golly, perhaps we ARE turning Swedish, after all!
That brings us to Carl Zapffe himself. As I understand it, he turned over management of the firm to Don Thompson in mid 1968, after 43 years in the business. Zapffe Silver has been around since around 1919 (their web site), and Don was the third owner, so it is unclear if Carl was the founder or took it over shortly before they hired Carl Linstead. According to their web site, the firm is still operated by the Thompson family. Carl's obituary may be seen below. It was in the June 6, 1973 Seattle Times, page 52.
