posted 11-03-2005 12:34 AM            

ACK! I tried to edit the title because I spelled Gorham wrong, but alas it won't let me edit the title.

Anyway:
Hello.

I posted this question on another silver forum and unfortunately, no one has answered it. Perhaps nobody knows the answer? I thought I'd try here.

I have the following Gorham brush set.

There are a number of marking on the pieces. Here is the end of the clothes brush. Is that C the date mark? Is the set from 1870 then?

Here are a few other pics as https (don't want to overload you with pics

Also,
I have a lot of old silver as family heirlooms. I have really been getting into identifying it and am kind of excited about the things I've found out (this stuff is so cool!). Is it okay to just post some pictures to chat about or is this forum strictly for ID purposes? I kind of was looking to chat with others about old silver because no one I know in real life gives a hoot. For example: I just realized that a set of silver flatware I always assumed was plate is actually coin! It was verified by a jeweler after I became suspicious that it was way too nice and too light and sounded like silver and smelled like silver and didn't have any missing plate anywhere on any piece. I started to think that for 165 year old silver it surely would be missing a chip or two if it was plate!

I also have a 1920's art deco hammered sterling tea/coffee set. The coffee pot has rubber instead of ivory like the tea pot does. They are both dated and the tea is from 1922 and the coffee from 1928. Did something happen in there with ivory? Ah, but that's another topic.....

If you say it's okay to "chat silver" here I'd like to post those pics and chat about that stuff, too in another topic. The other silver forums I've found seem to be only for ID purposes.

posted 11-03-2005 01:04 AM            

So, if it's 1893 then it should have a date mark of a, let me look, ...couple of circles sideways, right?

So, that sideways 8 at the end of the mirror is the date mark?! Whoo Hoo. I didn't even consider that mark because it looks exactly like the 8's all over the set and isn't filled in like the date code shows.

[Gorham sure marked their stuff up!]

Then, what is that C?

Here are two more pictures. One from the brush and one from the other side of the box:

Is this a mess up or is this a lion head. No one will ever know:

Is it at all possible that each piece has it's own date mark? That lion could be 1891, the sideways 8 1893, that C 1870, and the mirror I can't find anything else. ]

Nah...that doesn't make sense.

posted 11-03-2005 02:14 PM            

This pattern looks just like Gorhams Eglantine flatwear pattern from 1870. If the set is 1893 (and I now believe it is) then Gorham must have reused patterns for decades or it is not Eglantine. This is why I assumed the C was the date mark (1870)because Eglantine is from 1870.

posted 11-07-2005 11:22 AM            

Sets of silver with different date marks are not uncommonly found in the market place. I believe three of the more commonly found reasons are:

1. silver was relatively expensive at the time and a set may have been purchased and given one piece at a time over a period of a number of years (this is still being done today);
2. antique silver dealers or collectors throughout the decades have often put together "sets" from individual pieces they have found - therefore the dates rarely match up and sometimes the even the patterns or styles of manufacture by the same maker are not exact matches; and,
3. stores would often not carry in stock complete sets so when a customer came into ask for one they would order the missing pieces to complete the set for sale to the buyer. Date marks of course would wind up being a couple of years off.

posted 11-07-2005 11:38 PM            

Did Gorham name its dresser ware patterns? Or were they known more generically as lined, hammared etc? I don't really know.

posted 11-08-2005 08:08 PM            

This practice appears to have changed in the 1920s. To quote a Gorham 1929 catalog of sterling and gold dresser sets entitled TOILET REQUISITES, "Dresser ware, being of such an intimate character, rightly deserves being named rather than numbered. We have therefore given each design a name. However, for the convenience of those who have become accustomed to numbers, we have listed a number corresponding to the name on each page."
Some of the names that they came up with: The Imagery, The Ingenue, The Interlude, Josephine, Judith, Janice, Jeanette, Justina, Juliet, Lorelei, Wall Street, Sir Lancelot, Crusader, King Arkel, Wotan....

What these names had to do with the designs, I have no idea.