Stieff Silver

The Stieff Company, Silversmiths, Goldsmiths & Pewterers, located in Baltimore, Maryland, is also known as Kirk-Stieff after 1979.

Charles Clinton Stieff and partners created the Florence Silver Company on December 2, 1892 shortly after the financial failure of The Klank Manufacturing Company. George Klank was a Baltimore Silversmith who had been a part of Klank & Bro. silversmiths. On his own, his new firm lasted only 10 months. Upon the failure of the business, Charles C. Stieff was named as the receiver. He and partners revived the business with great success. The original name lasted less than a year, with a name change to The Baltimore Sterling Silver Manufacturing Company. By 1895, the name was shortened to the Baltimore Sterling Silver Company.

June 1904 brought the buyout of the partners and a final name change to the Stieff Company. Early operations were on West Fayette Street in Baltimore. A few years at Cider Alley in Baltimore, and later in a Stieff-owned building on German Street (changed to Redwood Street during World War I). Longtime showrooms were located at 17 N. Liberty Street in Baltimore. (a.k.a. 17 McLane Place shortly after the Great Baltimore Fire) The Stieff Company cut out the middle man by manufacturing their own silver and retailing it in the early years in their own stores and by mail order. This allowed them to offer a high quality product at value pricing.

Charles C. Stieff handed the reins of the company to his son Gideon Stieff in 1914. Charles died in 1923 at his desk at the Stieff offices on Redwood Street. Gideon would head the company until his death in 1970. His three sons, Charles C., Rodney and Gideon Jr. would each enter into the family business. Rodney would become President and later Chairman. Charles C. Stieff became Vice President of Sales, while the youngest brother Gideon expanded the company's retail operations into the suburbs of Baltimore, post WWII. The three brothers remained with the company until 1990 when they sold it to Lenox.

In April 1924, a new one-story factory was completed in the Hampden section of Baltimore. The factory at 800 Wyman Park Driveway was a state of the art building for making silver. Business boomed and construction of a second floor was completed in 1929. This was of course just in time for the crash of the stock market and the Great Depression. Gideon Stieff kept the factory staffed despite the economic downturn... knowing that one day when business improved... those employees would be needed again. Silversmiths swept floors, painted walls; whatever could be done to keep them occupied. Of course when an order came in, it was quickly and lovingly dispatched by those men. Some of the finest works are those made in the 1930s as the grateful silversmiths took even greater care and skill with the silver.

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