Gorham Manufacturing Company

Known as tête-à-tête (“head-to-head” in French), these sets hold just enough tea for two people to share. Their small forms required a surprising amount of time and labor to produce and were made using two different processes.

This set was made through electroforming. Molds were created from existing finished objects, then submerged in a chemical bath. Silver particles were deposited onto the molds through an electrical current, forming duplicates of the original models. After the silver built up to a desired thickness, the objects were removed from the bath and the molds, then finished by hand.