posted 11-19-2015 02:34 PM            

Close-up of the server bowl:

Close-up of the bowl of one of the spoons, in washed out lighting that makes the difference in the colors of gold a bit more obvious:

posted 11-19-2015 02:40 PM            

Backs, shiny and plain silver, marked only STERLING:

Richard, who saw these in person, thinks they're from the late 1870s (what he actually said was, "oh, that looks like 1878!"), based on the spade-shaped spoon bowls and style of the engraving. He guessed they might be by Whiting, Dominick & Haff, or possibly Gorham.

posted 11-21-2015 06:35 PM            

There are some similar pieces (and not everything is illustrated, especially serving pieces clumped into little lots), but what jumps out is that parcel gilt itself appears to be an 1870s thing, at least in the Wagstaff collection. In the 1880s mixed metal was the hot new style.

The spoon shape says Egyptian revival, and the handle shape and pattern say 'Japaneseque' (that angled band of geometric pattern across a floral backbround). The odds are on Gorham, as the company that seems to have committed itself earliest to a truly mad diversity of offerings, all of pretty high quality.

Edited to add: Stunners, Polly! Thanks so much for sharing your finds.

posted 11-22-2015 02:11 PM            

So here's a dumb question: where did the term "parcel" gilt come from?

posted 11-22-2015 05:10 PM            

quote:

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Gilding

Gilded frame ready for burnishing with agate stone tool
File:Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Layer for Layer.ogvPlay media
Application of gold leaf to a reproduction of a 15th-century panel painting

The term gilding covers a number of decorative techniques for applying fine gold leaf or powder to solid surfaces such as wood, stone, or metal to give a thin coating of gold. A gilded object is described as "gilt". Where metal is gilded, it was traditionally silver in the West, to make silver-gilt (or vermeil) objects, but gilt-bronze is commonly used in China, and also called ormolu if it is Western. Methods of gilding include hand application and glueing, chemical gilding, and electroplating, the last also called gold plating.[1] Parcel-gilt (partial gilt) objects are only gilded over part of their surfaces. This may mean that all of the inside, and none of the outside, of a chalice or similar vessel is gilded, or that patterns or images are made up by using a combination of gilt and un-gilt areas. ....

Gilded frame ready for burnishing with agate stone tool

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posted 11-22-2015 05:58 PM            

seaduck (and ahwt), I too always wonder why "parcel gilt" rather than "partial gilt."

I would love to know more about the process, too. That wikipedia link of awht's describes various gilding processes, but I don't know which would have been used for these spoons. Fire gilding, maybe? Does anyone do this kind of work anymore? (Parcel gilding, I mean, not fire gilding, which uses mercury very dangerously, so I don't imagine anyone does it nowadays.)

posted 11-22-2015 11:11 PM            

Were you thinking of the matte finish that was popular around that time? Or did you have something else in mind when you described "a different surface" that "makes for a more diffused reflection of light that is very attractive"? Matte surfaces ("butler's finish") seem to have been popular in the 1870s. This set is matte on the top, where it's gilded, and shiny on the bottom. My new (to me) cattail spoon, which I posted recently in another thread, has a gilded matte bowl too. I think it's from roughly the same period. Sometimes part of the decoration will be matte and another part shiny.

posted 11-23-2015 10:17 PM            

There are several very nice examples out there of W&H parcel gilt ice cream sets. The server in one of them has two-tone gilt (one section is engine-turned, which may give the different effect). That set has what I think of as "the George Sharp knob handles" (surely there's a term of art for those?).

There's also a flowering plant depicted on the blade, but not a morning glory. I'm a gardener with a wide grasp of plant IDs, and this one has me stumped for the moment. Sort of a deconstructed crown fritillary...

posted 11-23-2015 10:22 PM            

Generally the matte surface like these is acid etched, a butler finish is a term reserved for a way of polishing that gives a hand rubbed look.

Polly you have nailed gilt - gild - gilding but by 1847 electroplating of both gold and silver had killed Mercury gilding. Even when it was still the only way to gild they knew it was bad for you. Also it was expensive because it used more gold. Electroplated gilt can be very thin (not these).

I think the two colors of gold are rose and green with silver left bare for the white. The engraving is lovely but for some reason the diapering seems tentative and more American than Japanese... Not sure what that means or if it makes them early? I am going to guess the backs have had a good machine polishing? Not sure how they would have left the factory?

And yes there is a very good gilder/plater in Massachusetts who parcel Gilds for me. He does not give me a choice of colors like the old boys I used to use in London who offered lemon yellow, rose, green and other hues of yellow gold. He does offer different polishes, butler, mirror, etc.

My great aunt had a set like this and it was memorable as a child to eat ice cream with them - have fun!

posted 11-24-2015 10:00 AM            

So are you saying that the parcel gilding here was electroplated? How does that work--how would you get the gold to stick to only certain areas? Were they painted with some substance that made the gold stick just there? Maybe they waxed the parts they didn't want to gild so the gilding solution couldn't reach them?

Ellabee, yes, it could be W&H. They certainly were capable of fine engraving and gilding. As a gardener, what flower would you say is on the handles of my set? The leaves look very different from the morning glory/moonvine/bindweed.

posted 11-24-2015 05:23 PM            

The longer I look at these the more I'm in love with them. Other sets have complex parcel gilt designs on the server blade, but few if any have the same complex design on the twelve smaller spoons. And just when the pattern-for-its-own-sake threatens to become dizzying, you can flip them over, and voila. Practically modernist silver, soothingly silent.

posted 11-27-2015 06:20 PM            

Today stopping off is done with an oil based Sharpie! I do not know the old way but any asphaltum, pitch type substance would have worked. After it is stopped off then in the tank and the gold is deposited on the bare surfaces. It's labor intensive but not hard to do.

And thanks for the invite - pistachio please unless Mr. Husband has a nut allergy??

posted 11-30-2015 10:20 AM            

R.O.Jette, Franklin MA
(508) 520-1493