Col. Fountain Family — Reed & Barton Renaissance Sheffield Silver Tea Service
This seven-piece Reed & Barton Renaissance tea and coffee service descends directly from the Fountain family of Mesilla, New Mexico — one of the most storied families in the history of the Mesilla Valley and the New Mexico Territory.

Colonel Albert Jennings Fountain arrived in the Mesilla Valley in 1862 as an officer with the Union Army's California Column, married Mariana Pérez of Mesilla, and spent the next three decades as the dominant civic force in Doña Ana County. He served as Senate majority leader in the Texas legislature — where he authored the bill reestablishing the Texas Rangers — then returned to Mesilla to found and publish the Mesilla Independent and serve as Speaker of the New Mexico Territorial House of Representatives. He helped secure the legislative votes placing what is now New Mexico State University in Las Cruces, commanded the Mesilla Scouts militia against Apache raids, and served as defense attorney for Billy the Kid in the 1881 murder trial.

As special prosecutor for regional livestock associations, Fountain obtained twenty cattle-rustling convictions in 1894 alone — earning the lethal enmity of cattleman Oliver Lee and attorney Albert Bacon Fall, later the first United States cabinet member sentenced to prison, for the Teapot Dome Scandal. On February 1, 1896, the Colonel and his eight-year-old son Henry disappeared near White Sands returning from Lincoln County. Two pools of blood, empty cartridge casings, and an abandoned wagon were all that was found. No one was ever convicted. The case remains the oldest active cold case in New Mexico.

The Colonel's son Albert Fountain Jr. carried the family forward, acquiring and operating the historic Fountain Theatre on the Mesilla plaza. His son Henry Fountain — named in honor of the eight-year-old brother lost at White Sands — worked in the theater and later inherited a handsome 14-room hacienda at Mesilla Park, originally built by Frank and Mrs. Monaghan in 1913 and passed to Henry's wife, Beatrice White, through her foster mother Shirley Thomas. Henry and Beatrice lived in the hacienda for years, farming the land and carrying out extensive redecoration and landscaping. When they sold the house and 19 acres to the Franciscans of California in 1954 — the property that became Holy Cross Retreat Center — the family retained this tea service. It was among the finest objects in a household that also included a hand-carved Japanese dining room set, an ebony grand piano, and a hand-carved Swiss grandfather clock.

The lot is accompanied by a Fine Arts Appraisal by Harold Ray Jackson of Las Cruces, addressed to Mrs. Beatrice W. Fountain at her Mesilla Park address and appraised at $3,000. Jackson described the service as "an exceptionally fine and heavy quality Sheffield Silver Service" by one of America's most reputable silversmiths. The service is consigned by a direct heir of the Fountain family, and the original appraisal document is included.

Each of the seven pieces — large two-handled oval presentation tray, water kettle on tilt stand with burner, coffee pot, teapot, creamer, lidded sugar, and waste bowl — bears the full Reed & Barton hallmark with pattern number and "Renaissance" script designation. All are executed in heavy repoussé Rococo revival ornament with cascading grape clusters, acanthus scrollwork, floral cartouches, and paw-footed cast hardware throughout.

CONDITION

Good. The hollowware retains strong silver luster with repoussé decoration crisp and undamaged across all six serving pieces. The tray surface shows dense, multidirectional scratching across the entire field consistent with decades of service use, and light tarnish is present in recessed areas of several pieces.

DIMENSIONS / SPECIFICATIONS

• Tray: 30½" × 21"
• Teapot: 8½" H × 11" W
• Coffee Pot: 11¼" H × 10¾" W
• Water Warmer on Stand: 14¼" H × 9¼" W
• Creamer: 5½" H × 5" W
• Sugar: 6½" H × 6¾" W
• Waste Bowl: 4½" H × 4¾" D
• Pieces in lot: 7
• Maker: Reed & Barton, Taunton, Massachusetts
• Pattern: Renaissance
• Pattern No.: 6000 / 6000A
• Material: Sheffield silver plate
• Provenance: Henry Fountain (grandson of Col. Albert Jennings Fountain) and Beatrice White Fountain, Mesilla Park, New Mexico; Fine Arts Appraisal (Harold Ray Jackson, Las Cruces, NM) included