George Wilkinson
Ladle

CultureAmerican
Titles
  • Ladle
  • from the “Silence” pattern
Datec. 1866
Made inProvidence, Rhode Island, United States
MediumSilver and silver gilding
Dimensions13 7/8 × 5 1/16 × 3 7/16 in. (35.2 × 12.9 × 8.7 cm)
Credit LineThe Bayou Bend Collection, gift of Phyllis and Charles Tucker
Object numberB.96.11
Current Location
Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens
Metals Study Room
On view

Explore Further

Department
Bayou Bend
Object Type
Description

The name for this simple, elegant pattern is not known; however, its introduction coincided with Gorham’s other Egyptian-inspired designs. The ladle’s graceful stylized bowl and kneeling figures seem paradoxical with its spare reed-shaped handle and its ornamental reel, reminiscent of a sixteenth-century English seal-top spoon.

Technical notes: The bowl is gilded.

Related examples: Venable 1994, pp. 64, 69.

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.


ProvenancePhyllis and Charles Tucker, Houston; given to MFAH, 1996.
Exhibition History"Egyptomania," The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, March 18–August 5, 2012.
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
Engraved: A superimposed over O
Marked incuse: standard Gorham marks of a lion, an anchor, and an old English G [similar to B.97.7.1–.4]; STERLING

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

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