William Gale, Son, & Co.
Tablespoon

CultureAmerican
Titles
  • Tablespoon
Datec. 1855
Made inNew York , New York, United States
MediumSilver
Dimensions8 9/16 in. length (21.7 cm)
Credit LineThe Bayou Bend Collection, museum purchase funded by Virginia T. Elverson
Object numberB.81.8
Current Location
Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens
Metals Study Room
Exposé

Explore Further

Department
Bayou Bend
Object Type
Description

Gothic motifs, rediscovered and reinterpreted during the mid-eighteenth century, had evolved in a new, romanticized style by the 1840s. Although rarely adapted to silver, it found one of its most beguiling expressions in William Gale and Nathaniel Hayden’s pattern Gothic, patented in 1847. Gale was a great innovator, in 1826 patenting a process by which a silver blank was run through a roller die, emerging as a piece of flatware complete with decoration on both sides.

Technical notes: The handle is double struck. 

Related examples: Howe and Warren 1975, pp. 70–71, no. 143; Ward and Ward 1979, p. 172, no. 180; Venable 1994, pp. 56–57.

Book excerpt: David B. Warren, Michael K. Brown, Elizabeth Ann Coleman, and Emily Ballew Neff. American Decorative Arts and Paintings in the Bayou Bend Collection. Houston: Princeton Univ. Press, 1998.


Provenance[Kingsley & O'Brennan, American Classical Antiques, Philadelphia]; purchased by MFAH, 1981.
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
Engraved: N.Y. Hort Soc. to / W. Cranstoun for best 6 vares[es superscript] / of Pears, Sept. 1855
Mark of William Gale & Son [Belden 1980, p. 181, b]

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

If you have questions about this work of art or the MFAH Online Collection please contact us.

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