Item description for Ramona's Wedding Place sterling silver souvenir spoon

Ramona's Wedding Place sterling silver souvenir spoon

Antique

Ramona's Wedding Place sterling silver souvenir spoon. Gather around, my dears, and hear a story.

In 1884 Helen Hunt Jackson's novel, Ramona, was published by Roberts Brothers of Boston. Jackson, a prolific writer with 30 books and hundreds of articles to her credit, intended that this story would do for the Indian what Uncle Toms Cabin did for the black. The book didn't help the Indians much but this romantic tale set in the mission era was declared "The greatest story of California ever written" by the San Francisco Chronicle.

The book has been published in hundreds of editions over the years. In explaining Ramona's popularity the critic Lawrence Clark Powell wrote: "Ramona was the first novel about Southern California. Today, nearly a century after its publication, it remains the best California book of its kindÃ¢Â€Â”an historical romance of a vanished way of life." Dorothy Sloan Books (an unparalleled source of rare books and manuscripts), in commenting on the success of the 1884 edition (it now sells for $800-$1000), provides this insightful comment: "Readers mistook her sad story of injustice as a tender love story and as a recreation of a mythical Arcadian paradise. The story of Ramona and her lover Alessandro became a fairy tale..." Enchanted Easterners flocked to the missions, toured old adobes, and made pilgrimages to places like "Ramona's Wedding Place" in San Diego. (Thanks to the California Missions Resource Center for providing this history.)

Ramona's Wedding Place was the fanciful name given by an enterprising proprietor to the Casa de Estudillo in Old Town. Hundreds of years old, it still stands today.

The sterling souvenir spoon probably dates back to 1910 or thereabouts. We have left it in the condition we found it, unpolished. It is 3 7/8 inches long with a figural portrayal of Father Junipero Serra, front and back, graced by a wreath of laurel leaves. The spoon says, "Ramona's Wedding Place, Old San Diego, Calif."

A wildly romantic piece of Old California history!

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