1991.32 William C. Codman, Martelé pitcher | DMA Staging Content Management System

GENERAL DESCRIPTION

At the 1900 Paris World’s Fair, Gorham Manufacturing Company introduced a limited production line of handwrought wares named Martelé, the French word for "hammered." In the spirit of the British Arts and Crafts movement, each Martelé design was raised, chased, and finished by hand, processes evident in conspicuous hammer marks. While Gorham utilized methods of production based on 19th-century precepts, it rejected styles of the past in favor of a fashion that evoked the new century: Art Nouveau. Chief Designer William C. Codman and other designers applied Art Nouveau details, such as exuberant handles and everted feet and lips with undulating edges, and decorations, such as organic ornament, to traditional forms at once progressive, yet palatable to conservative American consumers.

This Martelé pitcher was a special order for Spaulding & Co. of Chicago, a retailer in which Gorham owned a third interest. It was completed on April 14, 1909 after fifty-six hours of making completed by silversmiths in Room M3, fifty-eight hours of chasing completed by Christopher Clissold, one of Gorham's top chasers, thirty minutes of bobbing, twenty minutes of oxidizing, and forty minutes of finishing. The total cost of production was $168, which suggests that the customer paid the sum of $336.

Adapted from

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), 251-258.
DMA unpublished material.

NOTES

TMS Updates - GeoXrefs - Spaulding Business location, place of origin and retailed in - JBA (10/19/2017)

8/30/17 - Formatted, added image, updated sources, and added tags (JBA)

I updated the title of the object in TMS to include the acute accent mark and carets to indicate italics.

I removed techniques from the Medium fields in TMS. Techniques are listed as tags.

I added "Circa 1900: Design at the Turn of the Century" label copy to TMS as a Text Entry.

I edited, updated, or entered the Provenance, Exhibition History, Bibliography, and Published References fields in TMS.

Catalogue essays

The American Silver Industry, 1840-1925

Gorham Manufacturing Company's Martelé Silver

Artist/designers

Codman, William C. (British, active in the United States, 1839-1921)

Gorham Manufacturing Company (American, founded 1831)

Cultures

Geography

Process/materials

Historical periods

1900 A.D.-present (The United States and Canada)

Individuals

Subject terms

Art Nouveau

RELATED OBJECTS

PROVENANCE

From 1909: Spaulding & Co., Chicago, Illinois [1]

Until 1991: The Oberod Collection, Centerville, Delaware [2]

From 1991: Dallas Museum of Art, anonymous gift

[1] 1991.32 engraved with the following inscription: SPAULDING & CO / CHICAGO. See also Samuel Hough, "Report on Gorham Martelé PCX" (undated, in Collections Records Object File).

[2] See Collections Records Digital Object File.

AUDIO ASSETS

VIDEO ASSETS

IMAGE ASSETS

WEB RESOURCES

YouTube~Watch a video about Gorham Manufacturing Company

ARCHIVAL RESOURCES

FUN FACTS

TEACHING IDEAS

RULES

Apply to objects where number equals 1991.32

General Description

At the 1900 Paris World’s Fair, Gorham Manufacturing Company introduced a limited production line of handwrought wares named Martelé, the French word for "hammered." In the spirit of the British Arts and Crafts movement, each Martelé design was raised, chased, and finished by hand, processes evident in conspicuous hammer marks. While Gorham utilized methods of production based on 19th-century precepts, it rejected styles of the past in favor of a fashion that evoked the new century: Art Nouveau. Chief Designer William C. Codman and other designers applied Art Nouveau details, such as exuberant handles and everted feet and lips with undulating edges, and decorations, such as organic ornament, to traditional forms at once progressive, yet palatable to conservative American consumers.

This Martelé pitcher was a special order for Spaulding & Co. of Chicago, a retailer in which Gorham owned a third interest. It was completed on April 14, 1909 after fifty-six hours of making completed by silversmiths in Room M3, fifty-eight hours of chasing completed by Christopher Clissold, one of Gorham's top chasers, thirty minutes of bobbing, twenty minutes of oxidizing, and forty minutes of finishing. The total cost of production was $168, which suggests that the customer paid the sum of $336.