Title: Antique Folk Art Sterling Silver & Wood Ebony Toy Top By Gorham
Catalog Number: 5769
Category: Silver / Accessories
Artist:
Country & Origin: North America > United States
Historical Period: 20th Century
Approximate Date: 1900 to 1940
Signature: Signed
Condition: Excellent
Size:
Height: 2 1/2
Width: 2 3/4
Depth:
Weight:
Description & Provenance: Being offered is a fine antique circa 1930 1940 sterling silver and ebony toy 'top' by Gorham of Providence, RI, that will help you spin your fortune. Here is a vintage Gorham sterling silver and ebony bottom executive decision making spinning top. On the top has impressed decision options "Play Golf", "Hire Assistant", "Buy Low", "Leave Early", "Work", and "Sell High". Vintage Antique Gorham Sterling Golf Spinning Top Xmas Ornament Toy. This is a hard to find~great looking 3D classic toy ornament. Super find for your 3D ornament collection or your classic toys ornament display, or a special gift for your favorite golfer! Ornate design, sterling silver spinning Golf top toy made by Gorham is a working top. This is properly hallmarked Gorham Sterling 50. It measures 2 3/4 inches in diameter and 2 1/2 inches tall. Although designed by Gorham as a toy, the top has become popular with sterling silver Christmas ornament collectors. The top is in excellent condition. Gorham's specialty, producing high-quality sterling silverware and holloware. In the early 1880s Gorham began casting ecclesiastical items, such as lecterns and in 1889 the cast their first statue, The Skirmisher by Frederick Kohlhagen, located at Gettysburg National Military Park. In 1896 their casting of W. Granville Hastings bust, Judge Carpenter was the first in America using the lost-wax casting method. After that the foundry went on to become one of the leading art foundries in the United States. A 1920 book published by the Gorham Company featured full page photographs of sculptures by such notable sculptors. The Smithsonian archives of American art list Gorham foundry over 700 times in their inventory of American sculpture. We are committed to enhancing our customers lives by discovering creating, and pointing out only the best art we can find in the world today. We Are Taste-Makers, Art Advisers, Consultants & Publishers of Great Stories.
Origin, Encyclopedia & Researched Articles:
Encyclopedia Name: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gorham_Manufacturing_Company
The Gorham Manufacturing Company is one of the largest American manufacturers of sterling and silverplate and a foundry for bronze sculpture.
Gorham Silver was founded in Providence, Rhode Island, 1831 by Jabez Gorham, a master craftsman, in partnership with Henry L. Webster. The firm's chief product was spoons of coin silver. The company also made thimbles, combs, jewelry, and other small items. In 1842, a tariff which effectively blocked the importation of silverware from outside the United States was passed, which aided the American silver industry. Jabez Gorham did not take full advantage of this opportunity, but in 1847 Jabez retired and his son, John Gorham succeeded him as head of the company. John Gorham introduced mechanized production methods, enlarged the premises in downtown Providence, improved the designs, and expanded the product line. In 1852 Gorham toured many of Europe's silver workshops and manufacturers, speaking with individual specialists, including master craftsmen and toolmakers. He also sought out highly skilled foreign workmen to train his American workers. George Wilkinson, a premier designer and workshop manager, was hired from England. In 1865 a charter was granted by the Rhode Island legislature by the name of "Gorham Manufacturing Company". In 1890 the company relocated to a factory on Adelaide Avenue in Providence.
During the heyday of American silver manufacturing, approximately 1850 - 1940, Gorham was highly influential. William C. Codman, one of Gorham's most noted designers, created Chantilly in 1895, which has become the most famous of Gorham's flatware patterns. Matching holloware has been made in both sterling and silverplate.
In 1884, the company opened a store in the Ladies' Mile shopping district in Manhattan, New York City, but moved in 1905 to a Fifth Avenue building which was designed for the by Stanford White. In 1906 Gorham purchased another long-time rival, Kerr & Co, which was based in New Jersey.
Verbal History:
The White House has used Gorham silver services during many administrations. Mary Todd Lincoln purchased an impressive tea and flatware service for use in the White House in 1859. The tea service was presented to the National Museum of American History in 1957. Mrs. Ulysses S. Grant asked Gorham to commemorate the country's one-hundredth anniversary with a spectacular Century Vase that contained over 2,000 ounces of sterling silver, and a grand "loving cup" composed of 70,000 dimes was designed for Admiral George Dewey in 1899. The largest single commission Gorham ever received was the famous Furber service. Ordered by Colonel Henry Jewett Furber, the president of Universal Life Insurance Company of New York, the opulent 740-piece service represents Victorian era dining at its most elaborate. The monumental silver and parcel-gilt "Neptune" epergne made for Furber as part of this service was displayed at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition in 1876. A large portion of the service now can be viewed at the Rhode Island School of Design[8] as part of its exhibit on American decorative arts. In 1907, Gorham created an elaborate silver service for the battleship USS Rhode Island. When the Rhode Island was decommissioned following WWI, the US Navy returned the service to the State for public display. It can now be seen in the State Room of the Rhode Island State House.
Gorham artisans also sculpted the famous monument of George Washington in the Capitol's Rotunda, the statue of Theodore Roosevelt that overlooks the Museum of Natural History in New York, and the famous "Independent Man" which tops Rhode Island's state house.
Gorham designed a number of elaborate trophies for sporting events, including the Borg-Warner Trophy for the Indianapolis 500, designed by Robert J. Hill.
In 1886 a commentator wrote in the London Magazine of Art:
If we go to one of the first London silversmiths and ask for spoons and forks, we are met at once with the smiling query. "Yes, Sir; fiddle or old English?" Fiddle or old English! If we decline both those chaste designs we are assured that there is still a large selection of patterns remaining. The "Lily", the "Beaded", "King's Pattern", and "Queen's Pattern." There perforce, our choice must end....Mark the difference, in this one article, between the supine conservatism of the English manufacturers and the alertness and constant progress of the American maker. For instance [Gorham] would not be satisfied unless it produced every year or two new patterns, nearly all of which are beautiful, and of which they will produce a complete service of all articles for table use from a salt-spoon to a soup ladle.
In 1893 a French observer was surprised by America's "remarkable fertility in the variety of its patterns for table services." Of the flatware patterns designed by F. A. Heller (1839–1904) for Gorham he wrote "we have no idea of the richness of ornamentation of these services, and of the amount of talent expended by him in the engraving of the dies which he has made on the other side of the Atlantic."
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