With faux alligator skin, and applied silver matte finish "calling card."
As mentioned elsewhere on these pages, Porter's work is of inconsistent quality. Here, the soldering is a bit sloppy and the hammering is rather random. So let's just consider that part of the charm, if we may.
We have always been fond of Gorham's first high style designs, especially those in the manner of Mary Todd Lincoln's tea service.
We've owned many similar tongs over the years, but these are distinguished by the cross hatched detail inside the grasping area, which is both pleasing to the eye and practical for levitating your ice cubes.
Though it may only win second prize in a beauty contest, the price is attractive and we've certainly seen uglier ones.
For those of you who like comparison shopping, check item 192469545712 on the Bay of Eees, which weighed not even half as much and measured a mere inch an a quarter in diameter.
Did these spoons belong to one of Vice President John Calhoun's children? We like to think yes, but don't ask me to prove it!
What could you do with them? Well, I for one would be ecstatic if served an appetizer of duck liver paté in a little ramekin with a very elegant silver knife. But then again, I'd probably also be pretty happy to see this even without one. For our purposes here, however, please choose...
$252.00
The perfect gift for your hard-to-please bibliophile friend.
Both figures appear to be hand chased-- note the detail in Blue's hat and knickers.
An attractive and reasonably priced little item from the Art Deco era.
$125.00
Also, please keep in mind that although it looks like Godzilla up there on your screen, this item is only 3/4 by 1/2 inches.
On Hold
This mark is commonly given to Saunders Pitman, but we are not so certain that it is his. For example, though the Met attributes a cream jug in their collection (accession number 33.120.311) to Saunders, some might consider this attribution to be problematic, since he'd been dead for a good solid forty years when it was made.
Other reasonable possibilities would include John K. ...
This was probably a custom made item.
We've examined both doggies carefully with a high power loupe, and they appear to be 14k. No, we're not going to test them...
Frequent guests of our little web page know that it is extremely unusual for us to offer items with removed monograms, but this is subtle, and also a tantalizing price, we think.