The United States' westward expansion, global trade, and booming industrial economy in the late nineteenth century set the stage for the creation of large and lavish silver objects like this punch bowl and ladle set. Silver was more plentiful and more affordable than ever before following the discovery of large silver deposits in western territories and the dramatic reduction in the price of silver when the U.S. government changed to the currency standard in 1873. Grand silver objects symbolizing American ambition became important emblems for the nation's wealthy elite, who practiced what economist Thorstein Veblen, in his 1849 The Theory of the Leisure Class, famously called "conspicuous consumption." The Japanesque style of the handwrought ornament on the punch bowl and ladle reflect America's transformation into a global imperial power. After Commodore Matthew Perry forcibly opened Japan to trade in 1854 and vast quantities of Japanese objects were exported to the West for the first time in centuries, American artists and designers became fascinated with Japanese aesthetics. Japonisme, a style that hybridized Japanese and Western decoration, was widespread in the 1870s and 1880s and was used with particular success in metalwork by the firms Tiffany and Company and Gorham Manufacturing Company. The naturalistic rendering of living creatures, especially insects, birds, and sea life became an important element of this style. The undulating surfaces of the punch bowl and ladle present an extravagant display of bountiful aquatic life in a loosely asymmetrical, Japanese-derived style. Corals and sponges at the base of the bowl indicate the ocean floor, and the rim is encrusted with sand, crabs, seaweed, and shells representing the seashore. This text was adapted from Ward, et al., MFA Highlights: American Decorative Arts & Sculpture (Boston, 2006) available at www.mfashop.com/mfa-publications.html.
This monumental punch bowl, with matching ladle, is a testament to the extraordinary technical and artistic prowess of Gorham’s craftsmen in the late nineteenth century, an era otherwise noted for significant advances in machine production. Reflecting an interest in Japanese art and culture that predominated in the 1880s, this magnificent set demonstrates not only the influence of British reform, or craftsman, movement at century’s end but also America’s engagement with the Aesthetic style.
This raised bowl represents a tremendous technical achievement, evidenced by its broadly repousséd ornament of swirling waves, flying fish, and fantastic sea serpent.1 Surviving company records reveal that the retail cost was about $840, a considerable sum in 1885, and that the value of the gold on the piece far exceeded that used on other punch bowls created at the same time. The interior, as well as the serpent’s tongue and eyes and other details, were originally gilded.
This text has been adapted from "Silver of the Americas, 1600-2000," edited by Jeannine Falino and Gerald W.R. Ward, published in 2008 by the MFA. Complete references can be found in that publication.
