The Schofield Company

In 1967 The Stieff Company acquired

The Schofield Company from Oscar Caplan.

(Oscar Caplan & Son are Baltimore area jewelers)

At the bottom of this page are links to the 1960‘s

Flatware Pamphlet, the 1929 and 1930 Catalogs

(or “Silver Books” as Schofield called them)

A Brief History of The Schofield Company

Frank M. Schofield was born in 1873 in Providence RI. He apprenticed and worked at the Gorham Mfg. Co. for 8 years.

Frank Schofield arrived in Baltimore in June 1899.

Frank M. Schofield’s great, great grandfather John Schofield had been an English Silversmith

in London in the years 1740-1772. In 1871, Frank’s parents Allen and Ann (nee Bradley)

came to the United States from England, and settled in Providence RI.

(no known connection to the earlier Baltimore Silversmith company named Schofield)

After working for The Baltimore Sterling Silver Company for a few years he started his own silversmithing company.

Baltimore Silversmiths Mfg. Co. was started in 1903 by on Pleasant Street in Baltimore.

Schofield’s most famous pattern was Baltimore Rose

Notice the great detail on both the front and back of this piece which has the early BS mark.

Sterling Plates from the 1903-1905 period

1905 brought the purchase of C. Klank & Sons*

(who had been in financial difficulty for sometime)

and later in the year, a partnership with Heer and the

company becomes Heer-Schofield.

* The Klank & Sons name was retained until 1911

In 1915 Heer-Schofield bought the tools, dies and name of Jenkins & Jenkins.**

1928 the name was changed to

Frank M. Schofield Co.

1930 the name was changed to

The Schofield Company

(sometimes shown as simply “Schofield Company”)

Frank died June 28, 1947.

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. She sold the Schofield Company to Oscar Caplan in 1965. Caplan in turn sold the company to The Stieff Company in 1967.

A Schofield box lid from the 1950’s

**Schofield used 1871 in advertisements because the patterns they made, due to acquiring

companies, dated back to 1871 with Jacoby & Company. (Jacoby & Co. became Jacoby &

Jenkins, and later Jenkins & Jenkins) Frank Schofield was born in 1873.

***Bertha Kline Tarbeau (b. 1885 in Providence RI, Married Frank Schofield on June 25, 1913).

(Dorothy Rainwater lists the middle initial as M.)

In a newspaper article dated April 28, 1977, (and posted below)

Charles C. Stieff II talks about Frank Schofield. Schofield worked for the company before starting his own company in 1903. During the time with Stieff (at the time Baltimore Sterling Silver Co.), Frank Schofield cut a set dies for what was then called Maryland Rose.

(These were not the original dies, but a later replacement set.)

When Frank Schofield started his company he thought that since he had cut the dies, with subtle changes to the original, he could start using the pattern himself without change.

A lawsuit followed. As Charles Stieff II tells it, Schofield had a

better lawyer and Stieff did not win the case. Schofield did continue

to make a similar Rose pattern, but called it Baltimore Rose with

subtle changes to the pattern.

Baltimore Rose would be made until 1977.

In 1977, Stieff announced that all of the Schofield patterns were going to be retired, and that all orders for the pattern must be placed by

April 30th 1977.

Schofield Silver Marks