21Kimball
Posts: 34
Registered: Apr 2007
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posted 12-07-2012 07:41 AM
  
A chance sighting in the window of a former Boston antiques shop of a set of four candlesticks designed in a grape pattern different entirely from the Reed and Barton pattern discussed elsewhere here led to its purchase, its identification as a Barbour Silver Company design, and inaugurated a now-considerable collection of related pieces. Fruit and flower motifs date from Roman times where they signified abundance, and hence prosperity. Their revival in the Renaissance soon spread to France under Francis I, then to England in the latter part of the 17th Century where they appear frequently in the wood carvings of Grinling Gibbons and contemporary plasterwork. William Kent designed a dining room mantel in the 18th century using a specific grape motif. In this country, separate grape designs begin to surface in the wood carvings of Samuel McIntire around 1800. The mid 19th Century saw grape motifs in any number of carved wood furniture designs such as the familiar Belter work. Thomas U. Walter used the grape motif in his Library of Congress of the 1850s, a rare architectural appearance. Henry Hooper candelabra from the 1850s using grape designs are known also. The motif appears to enter silver design at the very top with its use by John C. Moore for Tiffany in several tea services from the early 1850s including one for the Astor family, and one in 23.5 karat gold made for shipping magnate Edward K. Collins. The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, has a William Gale designed grape pattern teaset of the period also. Grape designs in silver seem to go into eclipse after the Civil War only to reappear in a Dominick and Haff sterling pattern “Grape” of 1895 in both flatware and hollowware, and most pertinently here, in a number of related Barbour plated designs.
An initial investigation into the Barbour Silver Company of Hartford, Connecticut reveals only a dearth of substantive information creating difficulties of assignation of this collection’s holdings of Barbour grape pattern hollowware. Rainwater gives only the most basic information that the firm was formed in 1892 from several predecessors, had only a brief period of independence, then was absorbed along with many other small Connecticut silver companies to form International Silver in 1898. Apparently Barbour continued as an independent line within International into the 20th Century and maintained its own production facilities in Meriden, Connecticut. International bought out the former New York firm of E. G. Webster & Son in 1928 and merged it into the Barbour plant in Meriden. Identical pieces may be found with Barbour, Webster, or International marks. International eventually named the most popular Barbour grape hollowware pattern 5336, “Vintage Chased”, and the popular online tableware replacement service lists it under that name in their International holdings. A number of online sources have placed the creation of the 5336 pattern to the year 1895 which would align it with other grape patterns of the period. However, several factors warrant further research. It rather defies logic that what was basically a startup silver company in the 1890s would have had the design talent to produce such a successful pattern. The numbering system, if sequential, also appears illogical for a firm just newly formed to have had that many patterns so soon. Further, the cast grape borders of this hollowware look identical to those produced by Reed and Barton on some of their (undated) hollowware. Some records for International Silver exist at the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center at the University of Connecticut at Storrs. However, the records only extend up until 1931 and the description specifically excludes any dealing with the Barbour Silver Company. A single copy of an undated Barbour catalog resides at the Baker Library at Harvard University. With some 240 leaves, it suggests that it may yield significant information on Barbour patterns that would aid identification of this collection’s holdings from that manufacturer. At least three major body types of the Barbour grape teasets appear: an inverted pyriform, 5336; a strongly defined baluster type, 5500; and a design featuring oval bodies, 690, etc. Further, the 5336 pattern which has prominent repousse grapes and leaves has a simpler variant, 5302, with low-relief chased grape and leaf pattern giving a Japanese effect, as does the baluster form also. Although my complete inventory (some 115 pieces)appears quite comprehensive, known sources indicate a tempting array of further pieces. These include a matching 5336 chocolate pot, an electric coffee urn, small sugar and creamer sets which would complement a demitasse pot, bread and butter, salad, and dinner plates, a still-larger footed oval tray as well as a large rectangular one, a very large footed rectangular try, 36.5” x 26”, several different types of candleholders including not only a standard three light candelabra but one with double-twist grapevine arms, compotes, cake stands, and centerpieces, etc. These all suggest that Barbour produced an unusually comprehensive line of hollowware for table service and assembling one here creates a major study collection from which significant pieces may then be drawn for exhibition purposes.IP: Logged |
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