posted 08-07-2002 12:45 PM            

This 6" by 4 5/8" booklet was apparently issued by Gorham at the 1904 St. Louis Exhibition. It is printed on thick paper, and contains several plates.

The booklet reads...
"In the history of the advance and progress of all that is best in the development of the silversmith's art during the last three quarters of a century will be found the history of the development of the Gorham Manufacturing Company.

"Appreciating from the beginning the value of the artistic and the beautiful in Silverware, rather than its mere monetary value as a metal, the Gorham Company have constantly developed and advanced until to-day we are no longer interested in Silver-ware simply because it is made of silver, but because of the beauty and artistic merit which it contains.

"Probably no substance has ever been used by sculptor, chaser or engraver, which has yielded itself more readily to the skilled artisan's hands or produced more faithfully his ideas, than silver; and the wonderful advance and progress of the Gorham Company has been due to their appreciation of the possibilities of this metal in the carrying out, not alone the design, but also the feeling and individuality of the artist. A realization of these possibilities has caused them to appreciate the great value of designers and artists of real merit.

"In the selection of designers they have not alone drawn the best from the countries of the world, but have established and developed their own school of art as well. Not only are the company's doors thrown open to all the great craftsmen of the world, whose work is nowhere more truly appreciated and more earnestly supported, but a young man who has within him the desire to fashion something of beauty in silver finds here a welcome shich does not carry with it the attempted control of his expression. Placed at his disposal are examples in replica or in plates of the work of the world's masters of design in painting, in sculpture, in architecture, and in the metals. He is encouraged to study but not to copy these examples. He is allowed to express in his own way the story which these examples tell to him.

"For years this idea, guided and directed by Mr. William C. Codman, a true master of design, who with Mr. Edward Holbrook, the Company's president, first conceived in its possibility, has been developed; it has been encouraged but not forced, and the result as evidenced by the constantly increasing artistic merit of the Company's productions has more than justified the care, thought and consideration which it has been given. There has been no slavish attempt at copying old masters, no straining after effect, no worship of novelty because it is novelty; but new things have developed, naturally, with all the strength and breadth and freshness of real genius properly guided.

"Although the Gorham Company's works have acres of floor space and employ many hundreds of skilled artisans and are equipped with the best and most costly machinery, they can in no sense be considered a factory. There is simply an organization, thoroughly perfected for carrying out the artist's thought and idea with sincerity. Under this perfect organization, the skilled mechanic and the costly machine became but tools in the designer's hand to faithfully produce his thought and idea and to carry his individuality into the completed article.

"While the business interests of the Gorham Company have led them to adopt or invent such machinery and such processes as woudl enable them to produce the best work with the smallest expenditure, they have not for one moment ost sight of the paramount value of art and beauty in making their wares.

"The Gorham Company have always furthered the great principle of bringing the artist and the artisan closer together, and of giving them a real interest in their work as well as in the finished production. They realize that in many operations the use of machinery makes possible the accomplishment of great results, but in assisting rather than supplanting the work of the craftsman; this allows the mind of the artisan to be less hampered by mere mechanical problems, increasing rather than diminishing the artistic possibilities of the work.

"It is, however, in the finished product that the world is interest and in the faithfulness and sincerity with which the artist's conception has been carried out.

"In the manufacture of a piece of Silverware, from the time the bullion leaves the assayers office until it is moulded into some exquisite form, in every stroke of the hammer, in every process through which it passes, the final result is borne constantly in mind, and the completed article bears no evidence of the use of the almost human machinery employed.

"The Martelé ware, entirely wrought by hand, demonstrates the value in the working of a piece of metal of the same artistic endeavor which is expended on the painting of a beautiful picture or the modelling of a fine group of statuary. It possesses the individuality of the artist. It is fashioned entirely with a hammer, beaten up from the crude metal under the very eye of the man who created the design. Every line has that strength and beauty and character which can only come from the loving touch and constant interest of the true artisan, as the work progresses the decoration grows and becomes perfect out of ht every form itself. There is no ornament simply for the sake of ornament, an object has been
produced which is decorative not merely decorated.

"The Athenic ware, while similar in method and production to Martelé, illustrates most forcibly subordination of the mere method of production to the thought of the design. The Athenic shows an entirely different style, feeling and character, following as it does the best traditions of the early Classic design in form and in the fine repression of decoration; the ornamentation serving to accentuate rather than to destroy the constructive lines.

"The exhibit by the Gorham Company at St. Louis will serve to demonstrate the value of modern methods as applied to silversmithing.

"The wares exhibited will illustrate the development in design resulting from the school of freedom in art inaugurated by the Gorham Company and will show the beauty of form and delicacy of treatment of those objects wrought entirely by hand. They will also show, in those objects into the production of which machinery in the hands of skilled artisans has entered, that the individuality of the artist is still retained. They will further shows that in the methods employed by the Gorham Company in modern silversmithing the art has in no way degenerated, but has reached the highest point in its history."

Some of the plates...

"Inlaid Writing Table; Ground--Ebony and Thuyawood; Ornamentation--Silver, Ivory, Boxwood and Mother of Pearl; Exhibited under Mr. Codman's name in Fine Arts Building."

"Tea Set, Hand wrought"

"Punch Bowl, 'Toilers of the Sea,' Martelé"

"Candelabrum, Athenic"

"Punch Bowl, Martelé 20th Century"

"Nautical Cup, Martelé"