Towle Silversmiths

Towle Silversmiths is an American silver manufacturer.[1]

Punch bowl by Towle Silversmiths, c. 1912

Towle Silversmiths was founded in 1857 as Towle & Jones by Anthony Francis Towle and William P. Jones, two apprentices to the Moulton family of silversmiths. In 1873 it became A.F. Towle & Son, and then in 1882, Anthony Francis Towle established the Towle Manufacturing Co. while still owning A.F. Towle & Son. In 1890, the company adopted the trademark of a large script "T" enclosing a lion. Richard Dimes, an English silversmith who had immigrated to the U.S. in 1881, started Towle's hollowware line. Dimes, who also worked for the Frank W. Smith Silver Co., would independently establish Richard Dimes Co. in Boston. Ultimately, the company's name was changed to Towle Silversmiths.

Over the years, Towle has created numerous sterling silver flatware patterns in the United States: including the "Candlelight" in 1934, the "Marie Louise" in 1939, which became the official sterling silver pattern for U.S. embassies worldwide, "Old Master" in 1942, now considered by some to be the company's flagship pattern, and the "Contour" in 1950 (designed by Robert J. King, patented by John Van Koert) which was the first American sterling pattern to manifest post-World War II organic modernist design and the only production-line American flatware included in the Museum of Modern Art's Good Design exhibitions.

In 1990, Towle Silversmiths was acquired by the holding company Syratech Inc., which also owned Wallace Silversmiths and the International Silver Company In 2006, Lifetime Brands Inc. purchased Syratech Inc., thereby acquiring all three brands.