Statler Hilton memorabilia?

Last weekend I went poking around a few of our great antique (read: mostly mid-century modern, 70's eclectic) stores, and drug my friend Shawn along.  I was looking for vintage cake stands of any form, pewter, depression glass, vaseline glass, porcelain...just poking around to see what I could see.

I was just about done making my way thru Antiques & Architecturals on Riverfront (formerly Industrial, and sorry, couldn't find a website for them), and I spotted this silver server:

I noticed it had a monogrammed "S", perfect for my kitchen, and it seemed to only need a bit of shining up.  Flipped it over to see if it was indeed all silver, looking for a silver stamp, as I hadn't found a price tag on it, and I wanted to know where I could begin bargaining.  That's when I saw this:

My mouth fell open...COULD it be a piece of the Dallas Statler Hilton history???  I mean, it WAS in a Dallas antiques shop, and it does carry one of the Hilton stamps, and when the establishment closed, they did auction off the dishware here.  I've been doing my research online and on eBay, and it seems there are MANY different stamps used to signify the silver service across the whole Statler Hilton line.  So now I'm bugging all my resources to find someone who would know.


Oh, and I got my confirmation on the silver:
So, off I went to the front cashwrap, fingers crossed, putting on my innocent "I just like this here spoon" face, and asked the gentleman: "There doesn't seem to be a price, do you know how much?"  He went off to another small room, which appeared to be a managers office of some sort, and discussssthed.  During this 60 seconds I'm saying to myself, "Okay, what's your limit?  $20/$25, after all, it IS silver, and they're totally going to flip it over and see the Statler stamp..."

He comes back, "Seven dollars," and I holler, "SOLD!"  Then I begin to tell him about the Statler Hilton here in Dallas, it's legacy, and what's currently going on w/ the status of the building now, and the hopes for it to be rehabilitated and used so Dallas won't lose it's first every mid-century modern building - let alone hotel.

His face falls, and he says something like, "Wow, maybe I shoulda' charged you more (light chuckle)."  And I think, "SUCKER!" as I politely put my ladel in my bag, smile, and say, "Have a nice day!" upon exciting the great store.

SO, all-in-all, if it turns out it's not actually from the Statler Hilton here in Dallas, I won't be too bummed...because it's still a nice piece of silver from a Statler Hilton somewhere, and it's monogrammed w/ my last initial.  And besides, until I find out the truth, I'll just lie and tell everyone it is from the Dallas Statler Hilton!  ha

For great pics/history on this building, visit my buddy Justin Terveen's photography here.  Also read more about the history of the Statler Hilton Dallas here on Preservation Dallas' website.