gorham silver designing brilliance 1850 –1970
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Ice Bowl ca. 1875
Gorham Manufacturing Company Silver and gilding 10 × 12 ½ inches, 25.4 × 31.8 cm
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Tureen 1884 Gorham Manufacturing Company Silver Height: 17.8 cm, 7 inches
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Coffeepot ca. 1890 Gorham Manufacturing Company Copper with silver and ivory 13 × 7 × 5 inches, 33 × 17.8 × 12.7 cm
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Tureen 1884 Gorham Manufacturing Company Silver Height: 17.8 cm, 7 inches
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Author
Kettle on Stand 1850 Gorham and Thurber (1850–1852) Coin silver; ivory 15 ½ × 8 ⅛ × 8 ⅛ inches, 39.4 × 20.6 × 20.6 cm
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Amy Miller Dehan & Catherine L. Futter
“placing sterling silver before the public” selling gorham silver to the world
The high level of creativity and innovation manifest in
exhibitions. The success of the earliest implementations of
Gorham’s silver wares also pervaded the firm’s strategies for
this plan are evidenced in the firm’s increased sales fig-
marketing and selling their wares domestically and abroad.
ures. And, although sales dipped briefly upon the eve of the
As an artistic firm established at the dawn of the industrial
Civil War, Gorham weathered the period with considerable
revolution, Gorham was among the pioneers who developed
ease, thanks to sound development and growth strategies.
a new and evolving focus on advertising and market expan-
Unfortunately, growth was tempered shortly thereafter
sion. This essay looks at the development and adaptation
by widespread economic depression (1873–79) and John
of Gorham’s practices in this area over four eras, from the
Gorham’s personal financial struggles and eventual depar-
firm’s beginning to its twilight in 1970. It gives special atten-
ture from the firm in 1878. However, increased marketing
tion to the establishment of a vast salesforce and network of
and exposure through journal publications, advertising,
distributors; brick-and-mortar retail and wholesale venues;
participation in public exhibitions (especially the 1876
1 Shreve & Co. (retailer), Wine Decanter Set, ca. 1865. Silver and glass. RISD Museum
the publication and circulation of
Philadelphia Centennial Exposition), and new leadership
printed catalogues; multimedia adver-
would eventually restore the firm’s onward rise to great
tising campaigns; and participation in
recognition and success.
regional, national, and international exhibitions and world fairs.
In addition to marketing through salesmen and retailers, Gorham employed another promotional technique first introduced in the nineteenth century: the public exhibition. Gorham participated in a number of smaller local and
1850–76 Paired with John Gorham’s ambition to produce all types
state exhibitions and, additionally, took to the center stage with the first international exhibitions held in the United
of silver wares on a monumental scale was his desire to sell
States in 1876. Moreover, the firm was able to capitalize on
those products far and wide across the country. Gorham’s
another development of the mid-nineteenth century: the
business plan included the development of a national
increase in popular and trade journals and publications.
network of salesmen and retailers whose work would
Print advertising became an effective tool in publicizing new
find support in robust advertising campaigns and public
lines and forms as well as technological developments.
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tional admiration, while American and European critics expressed dismay and concern regarding the detrimental effects Westernization had brought to the “purity” of Japanese design, which also suffered from the Meiji government’s prioritization of industry over aesthetics. Bowing to economic considerations, the very character and spirit of Japanese metalwork so esteemed by American silver firms was suffering the adverse effects of transculturation, draining designs of their exceptional nature and novel disposition. The conclusion culminates with the 1893 Chicago World’s Columbian Exposition, the last world’s fair at which American silver firms promoted Aesthetic silver. Buoyed by a national initiative to protect Japan’s artistic heritage from detrimental foreign effects, Meiji leaders had reevaluated and shifted their philosophy of artistic production for their Chicago displays. Out of the seemingly irreparable implosion of the Japanese metalworking industry in the mid-nineteenth century came not only a revival of past techniques, styles and craftsmanship, but also a renewed quest for invention. Simultaneously faulted and favored by foreign audiences, the melding of Japanese tradition with Western inspirations in metalworks forged for show at international expositions demonstrated that the Japanese Meiji government could leverage innovative industry founded on the legacy of native crafts as a way to contribute to Japan’s modernization. Although the beauty of Japanese metalwork encouraged derivative reproductions in America, more significantly, the ingenuity of traditional Japanese metalwork inspired the silversmiths of Gorham and Tiffany to develop a distinctly American realization of Japan’s technically challenging processes and distinctive aesthetics that produced visually striking examples of international hybridity.
Japan Comes to America: The Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition of 1876, Kiritsu Kōshō Kaisha and Christopher Dresser
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5 Bread Plate, 1871 Gorham Manufacturing Company Silver with gilding 2.3 × 26.7 × 26.7 cm (⅞ × 10 ½ × 10 1/2 in.)
By invitation of the American minister in Japan, John Armor Bingham, Japan’s American exposition debut was the Centennial International Exhibition of 1876 in Philadelphia, to which the Japanese government sent seven thousand packages of artwork from all regions of the country.1 During a six-month period, the fair’s thirty international participants drew ten million attendees who experienced the first world’s fair to feature a village of fifteen foreign exhibition pavilions. Of these, two were built by Japan using traditional native architecture: the Japanese Bazaar and the Japanese Dwelling, or the Commissioner’s Residence. Comprising a house with outdoor seating and a garden, the Bazaar afforded attendees the opportunity to purchase souvenirs and drink tea, while the Commissioner’s Residence housed a panoply of ceramics, furniture, screens, lacquerware, bamboo wares and metalwork.2 As with the 1873 Vienna International Exposition, the metalwork generated extensive praise. Ernest F. Fenollosa (1853–1908), future professor of philosophy and political economy at the Tokyo Imperial University, wrote: “The Japanese exhibit is a mine of wonders. Bronzes are of the most exquisite workmanship.”3 It took J. S. Ingram only two paragraphs in his twelve-page report of the Japanese exhibits in his 1876 The Centennial Exposition before he began his laudatory descriptions of the “rich vases of bronze, gold and silver, embossed and inlaid, of values rising into the thousands,” one of which was estimated “to have been equivalent to 2,250 days steady labor for one man.”4 The price for this vase was $2,000, approximately
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14 Cigar Lighter, ca. 1881. Copper with bronze and silver. RISD Museum
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16 Flask, 1879. Silver with gilding. RISD Museum
“was greeted by the Trade with the most hearty sense of appreciation” and so “the variety originally confined to a few specific articles has been increased . . . until we are now enabled to offer a list of sufficient moment to constitute a distinct department of our business.” [fig. 14] Despite the line’s success, the company, concerned that copper might not be the most becoming metal choice for a silver company, admonished that “the dealer unaided by actual inspection and misled by the term Copper would doubtless fail to comprehend the real beauty and true merits of these goods” and assured that the “skill displayed by the designer in producing the varied tones of color has given to them an indescribable charm.” Gorham’s catalogues were typically released in the autumn, just prior to the holiday buying season. Around 1886, the firm’s large general catalogues appear to have been published every other year. In the intervening years, smaller catalogues that focused on flatware were produced. The large 15 Prize cups in Gorham catalogue, Autumn 1888. Gorham Archive, John Hay Library
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Dehan & Futter
biennial catalogues proved essential to business, although the cost to produce and disseminate them was
“Placing Sterling Silver Before the Public”
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23 Claret Jug, 1893. Silver with gilding, glass, amethysts, garnets, and moonstones. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
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Dehan & Futter
establishment having to stock every item in a product line. As some services had hundreds of different utensils within any one given pattern, the catalogue could accomplish a great deal in terms of the range of products. Gorham also created special publications; two such volumes were produced in 1895 and 1898, entitled Suggestions. The 1895 version, called Gorham Suggestions, showed a list of “Articles priced at Ten Dollars and under, suitable for gifts, favors, etc.” The booklet was produced “in response to many requests for a ‘price list of novelties’ suitable for gifts, favors, and prizes.” The eighty-two-page 1898 booklet is lavishing illustrated and arranged alphabetically, listing items for dining, writing, reading, sewing, as well as candelabra, mounted glassware, children’s items, and souvenir spoons. Another category of goods, which was a major income producer, was loving cups and prizes for “athletic competitions and out-ofdoor sports.” In the pages adjacent to this description are drawings of Martelé ewers and basins, three-handled loving cups, tankards, and punch bowls. [fig. 25] Gorham marked their trade catalogues with date letters so that the dealers could match the catalogue and price list, often printed separately so that it could be kept from the retail customer. Gorham also appealed directly to the consumer through newspaper and journal advertisements that presented compelling reasons to purchase silver, including weddings, trophies for competitions, or holiday gifts. Gorham’s marketing efforts were under the direction of 24 Claret Jug, 1893. Silver with gilding, glass, amethysts, garnets, and moonstones. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
William N. Lecato, who detailed the approach the comideology of the Arts and Crafts
pany took to promote its goods in two articles in Printers’
movement. In The House Beautiful
Ink in 1901 and 1902. According to Lecato, the “modern”
of December 1899, Charlotte Moffitt
marketing campaign began about 1891, with the company
commented that Codman “never
spending about $60,000 a year on promotion: “[T]his goes
for a moment loses sight of the
into newspapers, magazines and high-end literature. Ours
fact that he is designing for metal,
are expensive goods, and their nature gives our advertising
and though he takes his motives from many natural forms, he
a distinctive tone. . . . Our ware is a luxury, appealing to
expresses them only in metallic terms.”
people of means, and we trust wholly to refined, dignified methods to build up the name ‘Gorham.’”
Advertising 1900–40
Due to the decrease in costs of printing and the introduction of wood-pulp paper, the late nineteenth century saw tremen-
Gorham weathered the 1893 financial panic better than
dous growth in the number of publications. Publications
most American silver manufacturers. In the spirit of John
were produced as a means to communicate directly with
D. Rockefeller and other captains of industry, Edward
wholesalers, as in trade catalogues, in addition to the growth
Holbrook began to acquire Gorham’s struggling competitors
of weekly and monthly journals and daily papers. As with
and formed his own silver manufacturing empire, which
other silver manufacturers, Gorham began producing sales
included Gorham. Consolidated resources and efficiencies
catalogues of their wares. This allowed retail outlets and
led to higher profits, and by 1917, Gorham sales reached
even clients to peruse Gorham’s wares without the retail
more than $7 million. The Martelé line, introduced to the
“Placing Sterling Silver Before the Public”
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Author
Epergne 1872 Gorham Manufacturing Company Silver with gilding 65 × 90 × 54.5 cm (25 9⁄16 × 35 7⁄16 × 21 7⁄16 inches)
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gorham silver designing brilliance 1850 –1970
Edited by Elizabeth A. Williams With contributions by Emily Banas, David L. Barquist, Gerald M. Carbone, Amy Miller Dehan, Jeannine Falino, Catherine L. Futter, Erik Gould, Ingrid A. Neuman, John W. Smith, Holly Snyder, Elizabeth A. Williams Rizzoli Electa A Division of Rizzoli International Publications, Inc. 300 Park Avenue South New York, NY 10010 www.rizzoliusa.com In association with RISD Museum, Providence, Rhode Island Exhibition Schedule RISD Museum: May 3, 2019–December 1, 2019 Cincinnati Art Museum: March 13, 2020–June 7, 2020 Mint Museum, Charlotte: July 25, 2020–November 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-8478-6252-8 $75.00 Hardcover with jacket, 10 × 11 inches 272 pages 250 illustrations Rights: World For serial rights, images to accompany your coverage, or any other publicity information about this title please contact: Pam Sommers, Executive Director of Publicity T (212) 387-3465 psommers@rizzoliusa.com