Object Notes

This coffee spoon 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.

Although less well known than Tiffany or Gorham, Whiting and Company produced some of the finest silver in America during the late 19th century. This coffeepot represents Whiting at its most innovative and technically dazzling. Rather than turning to Japan for inspiration, Whiting has drawn upon Russian silverwork which uses textiles and woven wicker as motifs.

By the 1880s, Tiffany's expertise in creating presentation objects was legendary; the firm had produced acclaimed pieces for many of the world's most famous individuals. Both the presenter and the recipient of this humidor were well known in the 19th century.

Each piece of this tea service, including the teapot seen here, was engraved with a date of 1795. The set was created for the wedding of prominent merchant Mr. J.M. Robertson of Connecticut.The combination of bulbous forms, urn-shaped finials, and foliate decorative banding suggests the prevailing taste for neoclassical design and a preference for English silver forms.

Each piece of this tea service, including the waste bowl seen here, was engraved with a date of 1795. The set was created for the wedding of prominent merchant Mr. J.M. Robertson of Connecticut.The combination of bulbous forms, urn-shaped finials, and foliate decorative banding suggests the prevailing taste for neoclassical design and a preference for English silver forms.

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.

Each piece of this tea service, including the creamer seen here, was engraved with a date of 1795. The set was created for the wedding of prominent merchant Mr. J.M. Robertson of Connecticut.The combination of bulbous forms, urn-shaped finials, and foliate decorative banding suggests the prevailing taste for neoclassical design and a preference for English silver forms.

Each piece of this tea service, including the sugar bowl seen here, was engraved with a date of 1795. The set was created for the wedding of prominent merchant Mr. J.M. Robertson of Connecticut.The combination of bulbous forms, urn-shaped finials, and foliate decorative banding suggests the prevailing taste for neoclassical design and a preference for English silver forms.

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.

Made in Asheville, North Carolina, by silversmith William Waldo Dodge in the midst of Prohibition, this cocktail cup is part of a twelve-piece set that stands as one of Dodge’s few forays into the modernist idiom, as opposed to the more commercially viable Arts and Crafts or Colonial Revival styles.