No, this isn’t going to be a picture of a Rice president sitting uncomfortably atop a horse on Rice Night at the rodeo (although I do have several–it’s its own genre). I hope this doesn’t disappoint too many people.
Instead I’m about to discuss a spoon, quite a glorious one. Check this out:
That’s a pretty good image, really. Better than you have any right to expect from a commemorative spoon. My problem is I can’t remember anything about it, including where we got it. I have a dim, lingering sense that someone walked in with it, maybe even Greg Marshall, who has walked in with more than a few oddities over the years. Anyway, if it was you, let me know.
The cowboy, by the way, is down at the other end and bears no likeness to any Rice Night photograph I’ve ever seen:
Why a cowboy on a Rice spoon? I suppose it’s just a Texas thing. You know how that goes.
Most commemoratives have a date on them. Makes me wonder whether this is a commemorative spoon or simply a somewhat odd souvenir.
The engraving features shows two big flagpoles on the building. Did those ever exist? The engraver edited out the end of the Physics building, I assume for artistic reasons.
The view through the Sallyport makes the building look too shallow.
Also all three popular trees are standing upright. Artist’s license?
Yep, that was me. I found it on eBay and thought it was interestingly incongruous that the souvenir spoon company that made it apparently decided that the only thing they could possibly put on the handle detail to represent an institution of higher education located in *Texas* was, quite naturally, a bronco buster. It was just too weird to pass up.
These were made by Watson Sterling Silver – They made several different handles for each state and then would put etch different significant sites for each state in the bowl. I have a version with the exact same Rice etching in the bowl and a handle with a Texas Star, a Texas Longhorn and an Eagle on the reverse. Very nice. It sits in front of me and on my office desk and always gives me a smile when I focus on it. Below is a link to one for Georgia.
https://www.replacements.com/p/watson-states-sterling-georgia-five-oclock-spoon/wtsst/118013021
Thanks so much, Bill!
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