European Furniture & Decorative Arts, Including Property from Strawberry Hill

Exhibited:

Louisiana Purchase Exhibition, St. Louis, MO, April 20-December 1, 1904, Palace of Varied Industries, Gorham Co. Exhibit Pavilion.

Literature:

The Gorham Co'y Exhibit 1904, pp. 23 (illustrated)

Pristo, L.J, Martelé: Gorham's Art Nouveau Silver, Phoenix Publishing Group, 2002, pp. 59 and 204

Photo of Gorham Exhibition Pavilion Courtesy:

St. Louis Public Library History Digital Collections. SC U:04 RB-F Photo

Lot Essay:

Following the award-winning and critically acclaimed introduction of the Martelé line of silver hollowware at the 1900 Paris Exposition Universelle, the Gorham Manufacturing Company sought to build on their renown at the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition in Saint Louis, Missouri. The present punch bowl is not only a highlight of the largest display of Gorham Martelé on American soil, but stands as an exemplar of the thousands of pieces of Martelé created by the company in the early 20th Century.

Typifying Martelé motifs as well as Art Nouveau themes, the Exhibition punch bowl features sinuous foliate decoration along the body. The handles, distinctly pulling from Art Nouveau influences, features female figures with billowing fabric held aloft. The stiff nature of the silver medium gives way to gentle bends and curves that simulate a shawl caught in the wind. Reacting against the proliferation of rigidity and machine production, the Martelé line sought to utilize hand workmanship and natural motifs [1]. The detail, craftsmanship and size of the punch bowl, however, set it aside from all but the most important Martelé creations.

Housed in a white-painted structure decorated in the Greek Revival style (illustrated here), the Gorham Pavilion within the Palace of Varied Industries at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition was the showcase of over 50 items made for the occasion and marked with a special interlaced ‘SL.’ Contemporary photographs of the Gorham pavilion show the punch bowl placed centrally and at eye-level, clearly a highlight of the exposition.

Beyond pride-of-place, the punch bowl’s importance is further bolstered by Gorham’s own records of the man-hours, weight and value placed on the object when it was made. A total of 566 hours were logged in its creation; the modeling executed by Frederick Buxton Jr. and the chasing performed by David Wilmot, the punch bowl was the second largest single object by weight to be featured in the pavilion, and at a cost of $1,950 in 1903, it was the most expensive item shown [2].

The present punch bowl, the largest of the four shown at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, helped bring Art Nouveau to America and established Gorham and their Martelé line as a premiere silver product against international competitors.

Works cited:

[1] Appleby, Mary Elizabeth. The Gorham Company’s Martelé Line of Silver: An Analysis of The Consumer and Commercial Strategy of the Company, [Masters Thesis, University of Delaware], Spring 1998. Pp. 15. UMI #1389577.

[2]Pristo, Dr. Larry J. Martelé: Gorham’s Art Nouveau Silver, Phoenix Publishing Group Book, 2002. Pp. 204