More on Family Silver

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.

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.

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.

Older Family Silver

Family Silver - Grandad Rice worked in Seattle for Linstead Silversmiths
Older Family Silver - this post
More on Family Silver - The story of Carl Linstead and Carl Zapffe in Seattle

Apparently, according to my mom, Grandad Rice worked at Carmichael's in Victoria. He was blackballed for doing silversmith work at home on the side. Apparently, the blackball is what led him to move to America and work for Linstead, reprised here. My mom also wrote the item, below, on the back of the card.

UPDATE: I searched Google for information on Carmichael. There's a good link story, here. Carmichael was born and raised in Victoria. It was rare for a native Canadian to be a silversmith at that time and so he's a "historical celebrity" for that reason. There are some Carmichael pieces in the BC Provincial Museum.

Even MORE amazing - if you look at the embedded Google Streetview image, below, you will see that the building itself looks almost IDENTICAL to the card. In fact, they even use a heraldic lion that looks the same as in the old card. A screenshot is below. One wonders if the Fort Street Cycle building was built later, or if the business card simply omitted it. Certainly, the building to the right looks more modern, in a "retro" kind of way.

Family Silver

Family Silver - this post
Older Family Silver - Grandad Rice as a silversmith in Victoria BC
More on Family Silver - The story of Carl Linstead and Carl Zapffe in Seattle

Business Card circa 1959

It has recently become apparent that there's some confusion amongst family members about our collective grandfather, Thomas Rawson Rice. He came over to North America from the UK in the 20's and worked as a silversmith in Seattle. My mom said:

"Grandad went from Vancouver to Seattle and working for father linstead 1951 or so immigrated from Canada. Worked there awhile then moved to Portland in 1954 and back to Seattle in 1953. That's about when city was making the freeway and they probably moved into store on 5 or 4th ave. The son was around then I think . Grandad worked there until he passed in 1973. So was the store."

After she saw the results of an inquiry to Zapffe Silversmiths, the response (on January 4) of which stated:

"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 closed shortly  after his succession. That is all the information we have."

Clearly the record is gradually getting a bit clouded with time. My sister, "linda bus driver," for example, wondered: 

"That is very cool. I wonder what the address of that shop was. Seems to me it was somewhere around 3rd and Lenora. I remember going there once. That silver that granddad made is beautiful. Hope you will post something on Averill Happenings."

Well, y'all, THIS is that post. As you can see from the ad shown below, the shop was at 2323 3rd Avenue in 1965. I DID try to call the listed phone number, but nothing worked. Same as if you called our own old phone number of LA2-6760. The ad may be found in Catholic Northwest Progress of December 17, 1965.

The address hasn't really changed all that much over the years, well, other than Linstead eventually closing up. It is near the monorail, as I remember it, and you can see the monorail in the Google Maps aerial shot, shown below.

This is what the building looks like nowadays, from Google Streetview

As far as I can tell, Linstead shut down in 1973 or so. Their last ad appeared in the Seattle Times in October of 1972. I imagine that after Linstead and Rice were both gone, there wasn't enough expertise remaining.

As an interesting side note, according to the Seattle City Directory, in 1925, Carl Linstead lived at 6017 27th Avenue NE, just about 3 blocks from where the older Averill kids grew up. Sadly, that house was torn down and has been replaced by a big rectangular box house.