Twelve novelty silver owl menu holders, Sampson Mordan & Co. Ltd., London and Chester, 1903-1924

Mordan's design for this pattern of owl menu holders was registered at the Patent Office, London between 9 March and 21 May 1904.¹ Judging from the number of times they are mentioned in published lists of wedding presents, their appeal was widespread. They also made perfect Christmas presents, as readers of fashionable magazines were informed following a visit by a correspondent to Walter Jones's 'fancy repository' at 195/196 Sloane Street, in London's Knightsbridge. Jones's shop was evidently a treasure house of pleasingly inconsequential knick-knacks. 'One of the special features to note at Mr. Walter Jones's is his show of ribbon-worked watered silk, exploited in every imaginable form, and being the daintiest offering for a lady's boudoir. . . . A charming telegraph case, silk-lined to match, and fitted with forms (price 10s. 6d.) are other examples shown here; and there is a small trinket tray of the same kind. . . . You will see a dear little set of silver owl menu holders, 44s. 6d. In case, or 6s. 6d. Each. . . .'²

Jones was not alone among retailers to stock Mordan's productions, particularly as by the end of the 19th century they were supplying shops and department stores all over the world. The fortunes of the company were founded on the invention of the propelling pencil by the civil engineer, John Isaac Hawkins (1772-1855) of Pentonville. He and Sampson Mordan (1790-1843), 'portable pen maker' of Union Street, City Road, registered on 20 December 1822 their patent 'for certain improvements on Pencil-holders, or Port-crayons; and, in part, for the purpose of facilitating writing and drawing, by rendering the frequent cutting or mending of the points of nibs unnecessary.'³ Over the years, the range of Mordan's productions increased dramatically, nowhere more so than in the manufacture of silver and gold novelties in chatelaines, vesta cases, vinaigrettes, menu holders, card cases, scent bottles, paper knives, &c. &c.

Notes

1. National Archives, Kew, BT 51/120, no. 433091

2. The Gentlewoman, London, Saturday, 2 December 1905, p. 57

3. The Repertory of Patent Inventions, &c., London, April 1826, pp. 219-226