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Gorham Manufacturing Company

Mythologique Flatware Design Samples

Maker

Gorham Manufacturing Company (American, 1831-present)
Florentin Antoine Heller (French, 1839-1904), designer

Title

Mythologique Flatware Design Samples

Year

1894

Medium

  • silver

Materials/Techniques

Techniques

  • silver

Credit / Object Number

Credit

Gift of Lenox, Incorporated

Object Number

2005.118.42

Type

  • Metalwork

Publications

  • Journal

Manual / Issue 5: Unfinished

  • Books

Gorham Silver Designing Brilliance 1850-1970

Articles

Surprise Endings

Exhibition History

Gorham Silver
Designing Brilliance 1850-1970
May 03, 2019 – Dec 01, 2019
Making It In America
Oct 11, 2013 – Feb 09, 2014

Label copy

These flatware design samples combine intricate detailing wrought from hours of modeling by hand with the evidence of a drop press’s mechanized brute force. They also testify to the desire 19th-century Americans felt for designs derived from the past as they simultaneously embraced the industrial processes that would guarantee the country’s future. The polished refinement of Antoine Heller’s 24 handle designs, each depicting different mythological figures and scenes, contrasts with the utensils’ unfinished lower sections-note the untrimmed excess metal left between the fork tines (lower left and right).

In the Victorian dining room, the ability to manage dozens of implements, from a pickle fork to an oyster ladle, attested to a diner’s command of complicated social rules and expectations, and therefore his or her status.

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No Image Available

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More objects +

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Public Domain This object is in the Public Domain and available under a CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication

Tombstone

Gorham Manufacturing Company (American, 1831-present)
Florentin Antoine Heller (French, 1839-1904), designer
Mythologique Flatware Design Samples, 1894
Silver
Gift of Lenox, Incorporated 2005.118.42

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