The Kalo Shop was founded in 1900 in Park Ridge, Illinois, by 32-year old Clara P. Barck, who named it after the Greek word for beauty.  She initially produced textiles and leatherwork, but in 1905 when Barck married a coal merchant and amateur silversmith named George Welles, the Kalo Shop began making the hand wrought copper and silver items for which it is best known.  In 1914, after divorcing her husband, Clara Welles moved the Shop to downtown Chicago, and opened a branch store in New York which remained in operation for just four years.  In 1959 Welles turned operation of the Shop over to four of her craftsmen, and in 1970 she closed the store for good.

The Kalo Shop produced hand wrought flatware, holloware and jewelry, and trained or worked with noted Chicago silversmiths such as Julius Randahl, Grant Wood, Esther Meacham, Matthias Hanck, Falick Novick, Heinrich Eicher, and Emery Todd.  In the early years most of the output was copper, but quickly changed to silver.  It also produced some gold jewelry.

The earliest mark was simply KALO, followed by HAND BEATEN / AT / THE KALO SHOP / PARK RIDGE / ILLS.   Starting in 1914, during what many consider to be the Shop’s most productive years, the mark was HAND WROUGHT / AT / THE KALO SHOPS / CHICAGO / AND / NEW YORK.  After 1918 it became simply STERLING / HAND WROUGHT / AT / THE KALO SHOP.  During the 1930s this was changed briefly to STERLING / HAND WROUGHT / THE KALO SHOP / CHICAGO / U.S.A., but this short-lived mark was quickly abandoned.  While most other silversmiths sold their wares through third-party stores, the Kalo Shop never did.  It tried creating a small collection of Scandinavian-influenced items called the Norse Line in 1928, with the mark STERLING / HANDWROUGHT / KALO / SILVERSMITHS / NS and STERLING KALO NS, but the Depression foiled this attempt, and these items are relatively rare.

The numbering system is confusing.  In the early years it marked each piece or grouping with consecutive serial numbers.  Later pieces were usually stamped with model numbers, and while there seem to have been a few rules, the numbers and letters in its marks were pretty much a hodgepodge.  Virtually no pieces were signed by the individual makers.

After Welles retired, the Shop continued making copies of the early pieces, adding a few modernist items and some in the Danish taste.  Many of its forms are classics, and very collectible, reflecting Welles’ motto:  “Beautiful, Useful, Enduring.”

Be sure to visit the new CHICAGO SILVER site.  This impressive site focuses on Arts & Crafts jewelry (for now) especially from the KALO SHOP but also has a great deal of information & images from other Chicago metalsmiths (Jarvie, Art Silver Shop, Randahl) as well as makers from Boston (Oakes, Hale), Cleveland (Rokesley, Potter Studio, Carsom & Barnum) and more.