Live Auction 1663Fine American Furniture, Folk Art, Silver and Prints
A SILVER FIVE-PIECE TEA SERVICE**
Lot 68PROPERTY FROM THE SAMPLE ARCHIVE OF LENOX-GORHAM

A SILVER FIVE-PIECE TEA SERVICE**

MARK OF GORHAM MFG. CO., PROVIDENCE, 1886-1888

Price Realised

USD 24,000

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A SILVER FIVE-PIECE TEA SERVICE**
MARK OF GORHAM MFG. CO., PROVIDENCE, 1886-1888
Comprising a kettle-on-stand, teapot, covered sugar bowl, waste bowl and cream jug, each in the Persian pattern, each circular on tapering circular base, the body chased overall with foliage, swags and decorated scrolls, the conforming handle with ivory insulators, the hinged domed covers with similar decoration and bud finial, engraved S. J. Sorg under bases, the kettle engraved Soog on handle, marked on bases, also marked with code for 1886, and stamped 2000, the kettle burner stamped sterling
The kettle-on-stand 13½ in. high; 143 oz. 10 dwt. gross weight (5)

Christie's, New York, 19 June 1996, lot 53

Specialist note

The present tea service was designed for the Paris Exposition of 1889 and is illustrated in Gorham's bilingual catalogue, described as "Oriental East Indian Tea Service." The 1889 catalogue page is illustrated in Katherine Morrison McClinton, Collecting American 19th Century Silver, 1968, illus. p. 81.

There were two versions of this tea service, both completed by Gorham in 1888. Samuel Hough believed that the present service was the more elaborate of the two, having required an astonishing 701 hours of hand chasing.

See lots 6 and 39, a pair of oversized candelabra and a Columbian Exposition claret jug, that also formed part of the Lenox-Gorham archive.