AT FIRST GLANCE, it appears to be an ornate strawberry huller. Or a small door fastener for a jewelry box. There’s a squeeze action to it. Made of brass plated metal with cool designs, it’s marked Pat. Feb. 13, 1877, and is only 3-¼ inches long.
A detailed patent search — with only the patent date — gets lucky and reveals a surprise – it’s a “napkin-holder.” Not a napkin ring, a napkin holder, which according to the patent application is “for suspending napkins from the collars of persons at the table.”
Patent No. 187,214 was awarded to Frank W. Campbell of Chicago Feb. 13, 1877. In addition to the patent date, it is marked RACEME. The origin of the word raceme is classical Latin racemus, a cluster of grapes. And beneath the RACEME is a grape leaf and grapes. Other tiny designs feature flowers, running deer, cooing doves and flying birds.
It is believed to be one of the first, if not the first, patents for such a device. Campbell said his invention consists of “a hook with a slotted shank, through which a bent spring passes, forming on one side of the shank a catch for engaging the edge of the napkin, and on the other a loop, by pressing on which the napkin may be disengaged.”
The 153-year-old holder pictured above surfaced from the famous John Rowley/Loretta Meserve Collections in Alstead, New Hampshire, nhmilkweed on ebay.
Several other napkin holder patents were granted to inventors before the turn of the 19th Century, a time when fine dining in polite company apparently required such devices. They included:
Willard L. Bundy of Auburn, New York, Patent No. 217,264, July 8, 1879:
Ernst H. Gosewisch of Chicago, Patent No. 591,835, Oct. 19, 1897:
Drewry Jackson Rhodes of Columbia, South Carolina, Patent No. 612,529, Oct. 18, 1898:
All the inventors in their patent applications boasted of the superiority of their implements, but Gosewisch came out on top. “The device contemplates using the napkin somewhat as a bib is used, only it does not necessitate the placing of the uppermost portion of the napkin directly beneath the chin, but leaves it to the choice of the user to place it as high or as low as my be desired,” he said.
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(c) 2020-present, Donald Thornton. All rights reserved.
Hi Diane and Don,
I think your idea with the patent research is FABULOUS! I loved this napkin holder. I have always loved the patent research and through the years have done much for others and Jim Moffet and I have thoroughly enjoyed doing it together though of course he is the king of patent research in my eyes. I hope this will encourage people to seek out the early stuff rather than just look for the 1940s and 1950s stuff.
great job. I will look further on your website.
Thanks, Carol! Sorry for delay in replying! We are having fun putting this site together.