- Demitasse Spoon (one of a set of four)
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The integration of cameo profiles into flatware design is unique to American silver manufacturers. Medallion-handled flatware enjoyed a brief period of popularity concluding by the mid-1870s. Contemporary sources stressed that coffee be served in the French manner: “After dinner coffee should always be cafe noir, or strong black coffee. It should be poured out in the kitchen or butler’s pantry and handed round on a salver in tiny cups, with tiny gold or silver spoons and lump sugar, but no cream or milk.”
Technical notes: The spoon bowl is gilded. The design is struck on one side.
Related examples: Five mates remain in the donor’s collection.
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[Whirligig Antiques, Austin]; William J. Hill (1934–2018), Houston; given to MFAH, 1992.
Exhibition History"Made in Texas: Art, Life and Culture: 1845–1900," Beeville Art Museum, Texas, September 20, 2014–January 10, 2015.
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
Cataloguing data may change with further research.
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