Summer 2017

2017 Antiques & Fine Art 103 PREVIOUS PAGE Coffee pot, Halsted & Myers, New York, 1763–1765; marked “H & M” on the base. Silver, wood. H. 11, W. 8½, D. 5½ in. Purchase 2016 Mr. and Mrs. William V. Griffin Fund (2016.7); ex Ruth Nutt collection. In Colonial America, silver mattered in the home because it was essentially cash in hand that, if needed, could be melted down and used as currency. In the Anglo-American social system, your rank in the community was linked to the amount of “plate” displayed on your cupboard. Money was power, but silver objects were better than money, because they were useful and they were also beautiful. The section of the display “Eat, Drink and Be Merry,” focuses on the many uses of silver associated with eating and drinking over the course of three centuries. Loving cup, William Christmas Codman design for Gorham Mfg. Co., Providence, R.I., 1905; marked Martelé. Silver. H. 19, Diam. 13 in. Gift of James Hillas, 1967 (67.115). Because silver was precious, it made perfect sense to give a silver object as a token of love or respect. Thus, when James Hillas, an insurance executive, completed forty years with his firm, he was presented with a massive, hand-made Art Nouveau loving cup. The preciousness of the material as well as the obvious hours of handcraft lavished on it made this cup doubly symbolic, saying, in effect: “This object is precious and highly valued, and therefore so are you.” The cup is included within a section of the installation called “Because We Love You.” Vase, Gorham Mfg. Co., Providence, R.I., 1877; marked. Silver, gilding, enamel. H. 5¼, Diam. approx. 2½ in. Purchase 1984 Sophronia Anderson Bequest Fund (84.334). During America’s Gilded Age, when silver production had become industrialized and silver itself was commonplace across a wide range of socio-economic strata, some silver objects were designed and crafted primarily to be appreciated for their beauty. This created a new category: silver as art, which is a section within the new gallery. An exquisite little vase by Gorham Mfg. Co. from 1877 exhibits a complex gilding and enameling process that was all about art (and the prestige attached to displaying such an objet d’art in your parlor).