Samuel Kirk & Son Company
Samuel Kirk & Son began in 1815 when Samuel Kirk (1793-1872) finished his apprenticeship under Philadelphia silversmith James Howell and moved to Baltimore to take advantage of the burgeoning economy in this seaport city. Kirk opened his shop at 212 Market Street (later known as 106 Baltimore Street) with fellow silversmith, John Smith. Early products included spoons, tea urns and pitchers. The partnership with Smith was dissolved in 1821, and Samuel Kirk carried on the business alone until his eldest son, Henry Child Kirk, Sr. (1826-1914), became a partner in 1846.
During this early period Kirk introduced the repoussé treatment for silverware. Repoussé refers to deeply modeled relief patterns formed by hammering or pressing from the reverse side. Kirk's technique may have been inspired by the highly-patterned Asian export silver that was imported into the United States at the time, but his motifs were his own. Eventually he applied this technique to flatware as well as hollow pieces.
Samuel Kirk died in 1872 leaving the business to Henry Child Kirk, Sr. The firm's technology advanced as hand-wrought repoussé methods were replaced by the use of cylindrical steel rolls and eventually flat steel dies. The repoussé patterns were cut in reverse in a steel die, then stamped on the softer silver with a heavy drop hammer.
Following family tradition, Kirk's son, Henry Child Kirk, Jr. (1868-1932), was admitted as a partner in 1890. Six years later (1896) the firm was incorporated. Business continued to prosper as the firm's clientele spread beyond Maryland. Customers included the Belmonts, Astors and Roosevelts of New York; the Lowells, Peabodys and Adamses from Boston; the Biddles, Cadwalladers and Ingersolls from Philadelphia; and the Hamptons, Lees and Davises from the South.
The beginning of the twentieth century witnessed several changes in the company. In the nineteenth century business had been generated primarily by word of mouth because the founder associated advertising with commercialism. Moving the company into more modern times, the Board of Directors authorized in 1911 that money be spent for advertising, first in the Baltimore newspapers and later in 1937 in national publications, such as House Beautiful and House and Garden. The firm's first retail silverware catalog was published in 1914. In 1915 the company began selling their goods at wholesale prices to authorized dealers.
Henry Child Kirk, Sr. died in 1914 and left a deed of trust placing the business in the hands of five trustees. The trust agreement terminated in 1924, and the company was reorganized as Samuel Kirk & Son, Incorporated. In spite of the poor economy during the Great Depression of the 1930s, the number of agents selling Kirk silver continued to increase and several improvements were made to the factory. Kirk stock generally continued to pay quarterly dividends.
During World War II, Samuel Kirk & Son, Inc. became very involved with the war effort, engaging in contracts with a wide variety of manufacturers including Liberty Motors and Engineering Corp., American Hammered Piston Ring, Standard Gas Equipment, and Western Electric for manufacturing surgical instruments and metal hardware or performing services such as silver soldering.
Late in 1966, S. Kirk Millspaugh, great-great-grandson of the founder, gained a controlling interest in the company by purchasing 80% of the outstanding shares of stock. The Kirk Corporation, as it became known, acted as a holding company which owned several subsidiaries including the original Samuel Kirk & Son, Inc. It began to diversify its interests by acquiring a wide array of companies. They were most successful with manufacturers that had a close affiliation with Kirk products, including Eisenberg-Lozano, Inc. (an importer of silver plate, stainless and pewter holloware) in 1970 and A. L. Hanle, Inc. (a manufacturer of pewter holloware) in 1971. The name of the latter was changed to Kirk Pewter, Inc. in 1972 and Eisenberg-Lozano became Kirk International, Inc. in 1973. The Kirk Collection was established in 1972 for the production of limited edition collector's pieces.
By 1979 the Kirk Corporation was in difficult circumstances. In addition to the costs of its 1976 reorganization, the cost of the company's essential raw materials, silver and tin, began to skyrocket. At the same time, the wildly speculative silver commodity market made it almost impossible to price Kirk's products to meet dealer orders. In addition, the company's manufacturing and office facilities had become severely cramped and a great deal of machinery and equipment needed to be replaced.
The Stieff Company, a Baltimore silver and pewter manufacturer founded in 1892, offered to purchase the assets of the Kirk Corporation. The resulting merger proposal, approved by shareholders in October 1979, combined management personnel and allowed for the continued production of the Kirk line. The Kirk Stieff Company was born.
