An American Silver Five-piece Tea and Coffee Set with Matching Two-handled Tray, Gorham Mfg. Co., Providence, RI, chased by Nicholas Heinzelman, 1895-98

George P. Pope, Brooklyn, New York, to his sister
Margaret Pope, to the consignor's grandparents

This set is a rare example of chasing by Nicholas Heinzelman (1837-1900), described by Charles Carpenter as "the ragged tramp who turned out to be a brilliant silver chaser."  Born in Switzerland and trained in New Orleans, Heinzelman was "found" by Gorham President Edward Holbrook.  He gave the artist money for clothes, arranged for him to have a studio at the Gorham factory, freed him from regular hours, and 18 years after his death published a 20-page book about him:
Practically unfettered, he was allowed to come and go as he pleased, and for weeks at at time he would disappear from his atelier and wanater through the woods of Rhode Island and nearby States.  Anything like sustained effort was foreign to his nature, and it is not surprising there fore that his output was exceedingly limited....such few examples of Heinzelman's art as are today in existence show that his talent was peculiar to himself and curiously expressive of the man and his pathetic love for the beauties of nature...his intimate knowledge of all growing things enabled him so to define each vein and serration, so to model the swelling curves of his leaves, that they seem to burgeon before our eyes and to carry with them the perfume and savour of the Spring and Summer woods in which he spent so much of his time.

Although started in 1895, the pieces for this set were not completed until April 28, 1896; while the kettle stand was ready that same year, the Kettle itself took over a year to complete and was not finished until June 1897.  Heinzelman received $500 for his work on this set, then $260 for the tray, a special order in 1897.  On most picees in this set, chasing accounted for over half the net factory price.