German immigrants Christophe Küchler and Adolphe Himmel founded a silverware manufactory in 1852 in New Orleans. The young silversmiths sold most of their creations through the retailer Hyde and Goodrich on Canal Street. Himmel and Küchler’s partnership ended in late 1853, but Himmel continued to make hollowware for Hyde and Goodrich. He created hundreds of items between 1853 and 1861, the majority of which were silver cups, goblets, and water pitchers. He also produced custom silver quickly by using interchangeable components like cast handles, milled borders, and rolled sheets of coin silver.

This goblet, with repoussé work and fashioned in the rococo revival style, was made in 1857 by Himmel and retailed by Hyde and Goodrich. Presentation pieces were a popular form in the mid-19th century. The Hook and Ladder Company in Galveston gave this example to Julia A. Seymour Labadie in 1857. Wed in 1846, she was the third wife of Nicholas Descomps Labadie, a physician and an army surgeon during the Texas Revolution. Living in Galveston, Texas, from 1838 until his death in 1867, he practiced medicine, invested in real estate, ran a boarding house, and built the first Catholic Church.

On November 22, 1856, the Galveston Weekly News reported that the “fireman [of the Hook and Ladder company] deserve great credit for their efforts on this, as on other occasions. Mrs. Labadie is also entitled to thanks for her substantial attention to those engaged in subduing the conflagration.” The next year, The Weekly Telegraph (Houston) wrote that “Hook & Ladder company No. 1 has presented Mrs. Labadie with a silver goblet.” Although it’s not entirely known how she aided in the large fire, it must have been a heroic effort for her to receive this highly elegant goblet.