Americana: Furniture, Folk Art, Silver, Chinese Export Art, Prints, Photographs, Books, and Historical Documents
Americana: Furniture, Folk Art, Silver, Chinese Export Art, Prints, Photographs, Books, and Historical Documents
Property from the Estate of a Distinguished Collector in Wisconsin
Lot Closed
January 23, 05:19 PM GMT
Estimate
6,000 - 9,000 USD
Lot Details
Description
American Silver Japanesque Two-Handled Tray, Gorham Mfg. Co., Providence, RI, 1881
with bamboo-form rim and handles, the center engraved with a Japanesque harbor village scene, the back with later presentation inscription "Helene A. Schuyler From S.S. Schuyler 1918 / Patricia Anthony Mellor to Parsons Hanks 1951"
151 oz 10 dwt
4715 g
length 24 in.
61 cm
Arthur and Rosaline Gilbert Collection
Christie's New York, January 27, 1996, lot 93
The engraving on the tray is inspired by the pictorial approach to decoration on Japanese metalwork; however, much of Gorham's silver in this style was based on Hokusai woodblock prints. See Charles H. Carpenter, Jr., Gorham Silver, 1982, pp. 94-100 for examples and a list of Japanese design sources in Gorham's library.
This tray is similar to an example that was sold as part of an Aesthetic Movement tea set by Gorham at Sotheby's New York, January 24, 2022, lot 1738. The tea set was a wedding gift from Colorado Senator Jerome B. Chaffee to his daughter, Fannie Chaffee, on her marriage in 1880 to Ulysses S. "Buck" Grant Jr., the second son of President Ulysses S. Grant. That tray had identical bamboo rim and handles to the present lot and was engraved with a similar Japanesque fishing village scene.