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Gorham Manufacturing Company

Pattern for pickle fork and sardine fork, "Childhood of Marsyas"

Maker

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

Title

Pattern for pickle fork and sardine fork, "Childhood of Marsyas"
Mythologique

Year

1894

Medium

  • silver

Materials/Techniques

Techniques

  • silver

Dimensions

11.1 x 2 x 0.2 cm (4 3/8 x 13/16 x 1/16 inches)

Credit / Object Number

Credit

Gift of Lenox, Incorporated

Object Number

2005.118.42.2

Type

  • Metalwork

Articles

Surprise Endings

Exhibition History

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.

Related Objects

Gorham Manufacturing Company

Mythologique Flatware Design Samples

More objects +

Image use

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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
Pattern for pickle fork and sardine fork, "Childhood of Marsyas"; Mythologique, 1894
Silver
11.1 x 2 x 0.2 cm (4 3/8 x 13/16 x 1/16 inches)
Gift of Lenox, Incorporated 2005.118.42.2

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