1992.324.1-12 Gorham Manufacturing Company, Set of fruit knives

GENERAL DESCRIPTION

This fruit knife, one of a set of twelve, is an exceptional example of silver in the Japanese style, popular in the United States during the late 19th century. Its design is based on Japanese kogatana, utility knives with removable handles called kozukas commonly made of shakudo, an alloy of gold and copper patinated to resemble black lacquer. The cast bronze handles of Gorham's version feature Japanese motifs, such as landscapes, figures, and animals, molded in relief and heightened with gold. The handles are affixed to silver blades engraved with bamboo and other plants, as well as insects.

Drawn from

Charles Venable, Object Summary, March 6, 1993
Charles H. Carpenter, Jr., Gorham Silver 1831-1981 (New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1981), 102.
"Shakudo," CAMEO: Conservation & Art Materials Encyclopedia Online, accessed 5/28/2015, http://cameo.mfa.org/wiki/Shakudo.

NOTES

wrote rule and updated Gen Description - 9/7 (JBA)

I added the following as a TMS Text Entry: Charles L. Venable, Silver in America, 1840-1940: A Century of Splendor (Dallas, Texas: Dallas Museum of Art; New York, New York; Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1994), 343.

I updated Provenance, Exhibition History, and Published References in TMS.

Catalogue essays

The American Silver Industry, 1840-1925

Artist/designers

Gorham Manufacturing Company (American, founded 1831)

Cultures

Geography

Process/materials

Historical periods

Individuals

Subject terms

Japonisme

1992.324.2 Gorham Manufacturing Company, Fruit Knife

1992.324.3 Gorham Manufacturing Company, Fruit Knife

1992.324.4 Gorham Manufacturing Company, Fruit Knife

1992.324.5 Gorham Manufacturing Company, Fruit Knife

1992.324.6 Gorham Manufacturing Company, Fruit Knife

1992.324.7 Gorham Manufacturing Company, Fruit Knife

1992.324.8 Gorham Manufacturing Company, Fruit Knife

1992.324.9 Gorham Manufacturing Company, Fruit Knife

1992.324.10 Gorham Manufacturing Company, Fruit Knife

1992.324.11 Gorham Manufacturing Company, Fruit Knife

1992.324.12 Gorham Manufacturing Company, Fruit Knife

PROVENANCE

Until 1992: Marsh & Ackerman, LTD, Providence, Rhode Island

From 1992: Dallas Museum of Art, purchased from the above

AUDIO ASSETS

VIDEO ASSETS

CONTEXTUAL IMAGE ASSETS

WEB RESOURCES

The Walters Art Museum ~View an 18th or 19th century kozuka, the form that inspired the handle of this fruit knife.
Museum of Fine Arts Boston~View an early or mid-19th century kozuka, the form that inspired the handle of this fruit knife.
YouTube~Watch a video about Gorham Manufacturing Company.
Metropolitan Museum of Art~Read more about Nineteenth-Century American Silver.

ARCHIVAL RESOURCES

FUN FACTS

TEACHING IDEAS

RULES

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