Object Notes

This ice cream fork is part of a twelve-piece place setting designed by Prairie School architect George Maher for the lavish summer home of Ernest L. and Grace Watkins King.

Following the opening of Japan to Western trade in the 1850s, Europeans and Americans became increasingly enamored of Japanese art and design, especially in the medium of metalwork. Inspired by the naturalism found in many imported Japanese products, American firms produced silver wares that relied on natural forms for decoration and sometimes shape.

This pitcher is an exceptional example of silver from the American Aesthetic movement of the 1880s. During this period, the Gorham Manufacturing Company, which made this pitcher, was arguably this country's finest producer of silverware.

This vase is part of a series Tiffany's produced using silver appliqués on a nonprecious metal body. Records indicate that the outer surface of this example is of rusted steel. Another version was of copper. On the back side are silver appliquéd polonia leaves and geometric cutouts.

In the 18th century, mugs and canns (mugs with bulbous bottoms) were widely used among wealthy Americans for ale drinking and in churches for Communion. This example (c. 1760) by the well-known Boston silversmith Benjamin Burt (1729-1805) is an excellent example of the form in American silver.