Catalog: Silver: Sterling: Flatware

Colonial Williamsburg commissioned Baltimore's Stieff Company (later Kirk-Stieff) to produce the revivalist Queen Anne line of flatware, which was introduced in 1940 and sold through "CW."

Queen Anne is a Hanoverian design with a rounded-end, upturned handle with a midrib and a rattail bowl back.

A companion pattern, Williamsburg Shell was added in 1970...

A pattern with a history rooted in the Aesthetic movement, Tiffany's original Japanese (to be distinguished from later produced and renamed Audubon) was the first of numerous American flatware patterns to be issued in a multi-motif bird motif, as indicated by William Hood writing in Tiffany Silver Flatware...

Rooted in Moorish design and dating from the encompassing 1870s Renaissance Revival period, Whiting's Arabesque features a standing griffin with widespread wings set against a vine, leaf, and rosette background, all of which are quintessential elements of this design motif.

This ensemble is an ice cream set comprised of a server along with eleven (alas one of the no doubt once twelve has been lost to the group) individual spoons...

Soup ladles in the Victorian era were characteristically large and this example is dramatic validation of this convention.

It measures 14" long and weighs 8.1 T. oz.

The capacious helmet-shaped bowl is 4 1/2" long by 3 1/2" at the widest, and 1 1/2" at the deepest (see image 2). It has a bright gold finish on the interior.

Made by Gorham, whose "lion, anchor, G" emblem, "Sterling," "Pat. 1864," and the name of the retailer, "Geo. W...

A matched pair, this 9" long fork and 8 7/8" spoon could be used in combination as a serving set or individually.

Heavy items, the fork weighs nearly 3.6 T. oz., and the spoon close to 3.4 T. oz., for just under 7.0 T. oz. combined.

The pattern is Gorham's Coligni. These are early, original issue, items marked with Gorham's "lion, anchor, G," "Sterling," and "Copyrighted '89" on the backsides...

It is unusual to find an intact set of twelve ice spoons along with their original serving knife, aka slice, and even more so to have the set in such pristine condition as this group.

Made by Frank Smith, whose early "S in a circle" mark and "sterling" are imprinted on the backside of all pieces, along with the name of the retailer, "Worcester & Co.," Lowell, Massachusetts.

The server measures 10" long and weighs 2.7 T...

One of several specially designed, numbered, oyster, aka shrimp or seafood cocktail, forks that Gorham presented in its 1886 catalogue (see enlargement 2), No. 10 features a ball top with twisted stems.

This offering is for a full set of twelve matched pieces, all in flawless, original condition.

Each one measures 5 7/8" long, while the group weigh 4.7 T. oz...

Gorham produced a line of specialty, cast, flatware, pieces of which were identified by a number preceded by an H designation. Items included large and small bon bons as well as a series of exceptionally large serving spoons, and perhaps other items...

These six, matching, 19th century, coffee spoons are a statement in design and technique.

Made by Gorham, whose "lion, anchor, G" emblem and the word "Sterling" are imprinted on the reverses, they are 4 7/8" long, and relatively very heavy at 4.37 the group.

Finished in a satin matte gold on all surfaces, they have blue (it may read black in the above composites, but it is a deep blue), yellow, and white enameled handles, executed in an Arabesque with rosettes design...

Gorham's Angelo aka No. 10 flatware pattern forms the core of the fabled (Henry Jewett and Elvira Irwin) "Furber Collection" of silver held at the "Rhode Island School of Design Museum."

Gorham Silver: Designing Brilliance 1850-1970 edited by Elizabeth Williams recounts,

"Sitting down to the Furbers' table, one would have been confronted with a bevy of Gorham flatware--687 pieces in all...

One of the most expressive of renowned Gorham designer Antoine Heller's patterns, Medici aka Old Medici features figures and imagery drawn from the Italian Renaissance period...

Introduced in 1889, Coligni stands alongside other enduring Gorham patterns such as Versailles, St. Cloud, and Cluny that originated at the hand of renowned designer Antoine Heller.

Heller was a classicist much of whose work reflects the Beaux Arts style. This mode is very much evident in Coligni which is a multi-motif line that incorporates draped, romantic figures arrayed amid opulent background imagery.

This example is a very large, 9 5/8" long, 4.6 T. oz., serving ...

Illustrated and identified in Gorham's 1888 catalogue as an "olive spoon and fork," this 12" long, 2.0 T. oz., piece embodies the aesthetic sensibilities of the period, evidenced by its naturalistic form.

The full length of the handle is nubby, slightly twisted, and stem like. The bowl is virtually a leaf, with piercings that resemble veins, and a surface that is engraved with additional leaves.

The applied olive and two leaves attached to the stem appear to grow out of it, and appear full...

Princess was a pattern introduced by John Polhamus and continued in production by George Shiebler, both of whom were prominent 19th Century New York City makers.

This 11" long, heavy at 4.5 T. oz., ladle, (likely an oyster which was one step down in size from a full soup), is an early piece marked "J.P. Pat. 74" and "Sterling."

The design is Moorish in style, with a suggestion of Greek or Egyptian Revival influence.

The handle front features a leaf and berry repeating border surr...

Model number "A9969," as stamped on the underside, along with Gorham's "lion, anchor, G" emblem, the word "Sterling," and the name of the retailer, Boston's "Bigelow, Kennard & Co.," this flat-bottomed, oval tray measures 8 1/4" long by 5 1/2" wide and weighs a relatively heavy 6.8 T. oz.

A highly decorative item, the uplifted and rounded walls have a 5/8" wide banded rim, which has a beaded margin bordering a chased design of repeating urns, rosettes, acanthus leaves and fan...

In his benchmark work, Tiffany Silver Flatware, William Hood illustrates three pieces in a rarely-found motif that he describes as having "block-form hollow handles" with "ornamentation" (chapter eight, "Not-full-line Patterns").

This 6 1/8" long, nearly 1.3 T. oz., sugar sifter is a fourth example of the pattern. The "ornamentation" in this instance is comprised of an engraved leaf and flower (perhaps wild rose) that extends to all four sides of the rounded edge "block."...

Rooted in Moorish design, Whiting's Arabesque features a standing griffin with widespread wings set against a vine, leaf, and rosette background that are the defining elements of arabesque design.

This example is an 8 7/8" long, 2.4 T. oz., all silver, pie server that was retailed by "Ettenheimer [& Co.]," Rochester, New York, as stamped on the handle backside. Other marks include Whiting's "standing lion with a W" emblem, "Sterling," "Pat. 1875," and the number "6."

The handle fron...

An prominent name among contemporary British metal workers, Michael Allen Bolton (1938-2005) produced signature jewelry, flatware, and small items in silver.

There is ample biographical information about him available online, along with illustrations of his products.

One UK source notes these details,

"He exhibited successfully at the Goldsmith's Company 'Loot' exhibitions from 1975 to 1981 and in their 'Contemporary Silver Tableware' exhibition in 1996. In that catalogue it stated 'His...