posted 06-28-1999 12:37 AM            

Dating
Gorham acquired Whiting in 1924, and with it the Lily patterns. Remakes of the pattern have re appeared with Gorham marks and are still being produced today. The vast majority of our pieces have not only the Whiting stamp but also "PAT 1902 R'D 1902" and one has just the Whiting stamp.. One might presume that the PAT 1902 versions were produced for the first 14 years of the pattern, and then the 1902 stamp was dropped. But it could have been continued indefinitely. I am not sure if Gorham continued to produce Lily with the Whiting marks, or discontinued it after 1924, to be reborn again in the sixties with Gorham marks ("Gorham" spelled out). Turner does not list it as obsolete in 1929, and it seems to be very plentiful, so possibly it just continued on.

Pieces Available
As a turn of the century pattern every conceivable device known to the table was available in Lily. Shown below are:

Item.......Length......our cost
Demi-Tasse...4½".......$39
Flat Butter....5 "....... $53
Teaspoon....5 7/8" .l..... $39
Oval Soup ....7½"....... $80
Dinner Knife...9 ".......$ 65
Dinner Fork....7 7/8"....$125
Luncheon Fork .7½"......$48
Salad Fork ...6 ".....$135

Photo:

Key Pieces
The great challenge of Lily has traditionally been salad forks. When we were looking for ours, one dealer told us he had seven and would put us on the waiting list. There were 50 ahead of us. The new Gorham version is actually quite a bit bigger and is really a fish fork, so the real 6" salads are at a premium. However the sleeper is the dinner fork. It must be that Lily was one of those flowery patterns that m'lady used for luncheon but not dinner because dinner forks are made out of unobtainium. Midwest always has a couple around because they keep them priced at $185!!

Comments
For patterns such as Lily it would be wonderful to interview some old Gorham employees that could give us the real history. What happened after 1924? Were the Whiting lines dropped? Did they continue on being actively marketed? Or just making replacements for people? Was Lily ever discontinued? When did Gorham begin the line with the Gorham stamp?
It seems we know so little.