Four-piece tea service

This tea service was produced two years after William Gale Sr. made his son a partner in the firm, which became a popular source for hollowware such as this matching tea service. By midcentury the firm’s employees numbered seventy-five. Presented as a wedding gift, the service was decorated in the fashionable Rococo-revival style. William Gale & Son apparently copied its scheme of rusticated grapevines that serve to cover joints and form handles from the design of a teakettle on stand made in 1850 by Edward Moore. A stylish and costly service, elaborately repousséd and chased and marked by one of New York City’s best-known silversmiths, it served to indicate the high social expectations of the newlyweds.

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.