Thanksgiving is only a week away and some diligent hostesses (not me, of course), have planned their menus, ordered their turkeys, are already busy polishing their antique silver serving dishes and flatware for this most American of holidays.
Just as we owe our national day of turkey, family, and football to a bedraggled group of 17th-century English religious separatists, the silverware fad originally came to America by way of European colonists. By the turn of the 20th century, wealthy Americans, and even some of the middle class, were amassing collections of sterling silverware that rivaled those of their British contemporaries.
Featuring an all-over hand hammered surface in the Japanese taste, the shaped rectangular crumb catcher is highly reflective and has a wonderful texture. The hammered handle also has an applied mixed metal leaf, branch, and berry motif. The reverse of the handle has been stamped with the identifying marks of the Gorham Manufacturing Co., and the words Sterling & Other Metals. It measures approximately 12 3/4" long, and is in excellent condition with a wonderful texture and crisp decoration. For more information on this unique piece, click here.
Just as we owe our national day of turkey, family, and football to a bedraggled group of 17th-century English religious separatists, the silverware fad originally came to America by way of European colonists. By the turn of the 20th century, wealthy Americans, and even some of the middle class, were amassing collections of sterling silverware that rivaled those of their British contemporaries.
The silversmiths of Gorham, in Rhode Island, have been producing magnificent silver items since 1831, when struggling jeweler Jabez Gorham began making "coin silver" spoons--that is, flatware produced from European silver coins. Jabez's son John expanded Gorham into a prominent company that dominated the American decorative silver market from the late 19th to the 20th century. One of the largest silver service collections in American history--a 740-piece set commissioned in the late 19th century by Colonel Henry Jewett Furber, the president of Universal Life Insurance Company of New York--was manufactured by Gorham. Gorham silver flatware has also graced the tables of three different U.S. Presidents: Lincoln, Grant, and George H.W. Bush.
Featuring an all-over hand hammered surface in the Japanese taste, the shaped rectangular crumb catcher is highly reflective and has a wonderful texture. The hammered handle also has an applied mixed metal leaf, branch, and berry motif. The reverse of the handle has been stamped with the identifying marks of the Gorham Manufacturing Co., and the words Sterling & Other Metals. It measures approximately 12 3/4" long, and is in excellent condition with a wonderful texture and crisp decoration. For more information on this unique piece, click here.
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