During the 1890's and first part of this century, Florida became a popular state in which to take a vacation to escape from the harsh New England winters. The completion of a rail line from New York to Florida was the final inpetus to the creation of a number of luxurious hotels and hotel resort areas. The wealthy New Englanders flocked to this new vacation haven.
It is not surprising that we have a lot of beautiful souvenir spoons from Florida because this was the "jet set" resort area of this time. I could add dozens of more examples. But this is the first attempt at doing a page dealing with just one state. Give me some feedback and let me know what you think.
This couple is "spooning"
Certain symbols symbolized the Florida area to the New England folks.
St.
Petersburg
The alligator was one of these symbols
Dayton
Daytona, Florida, but often found customized in various ways
The palm tree was another of those symbols. The detail in these souvenir spoons is magnificent. Note in the first picture there is a man climbing the palm tree. The second picture was expanded by 300% to show the tiny detail that they put into these spoons. You can see his eye and the design on his swimming trunks. Most of this detail is visible to the naked eye only if you have excellent eyesight.
more Florida
symbols
St. Augustine is the oldest city on the North American continent. It was designed in the style of old European cities and features "city gates". These gates may be found on many different spoons in many variations.
enameled
coat of arms on pointed style Art Deco spoon
hand engraved version of the gates
embossed version of the gates
embossed version of the gates on the handle
Florida is home to many very famous hotels. Since these hotels catered to an upper class clientele who could afford expensive silver souvenirs, it is not surprising that we find many spoons showing these fantastic structures.
Royal Poinciana, Palm Beach, Florida
More Florida hotel spoons may be viewed under the Hotel Spoon Exhibit