Masterpieces of naturalism: Gorham's Narragansett flatware

Narragansett. To the student of anthropology, this is the name of a tribe of Native Americans of the Algonquin family formerly living in Rhode Island, now almost extinct. To the student of geography, the term refers to Narragansett Bay, an inlet of the Atlantic Ocean in southeastern Rhode Island named for the Indian tribe (Fig. 1). To the serious student of American silverware, Narragansett is a nineteenth-century flatware pattern made by the Gorham Manufacturing Company of Providence, Rhode Island, which took its name from the bay and its inspiration from the marine life that abounds there and elsewhere along the Atlantic coast.

A tour de force of both design and craftsmanship, Narragansett is one of the most extraordinary flatware patterns ever created, but it is, nonetheless, not well known. It has rarely been published and is not mentioned in neither Charles Carpenter Jr.'s Gorham Silver or Noel Turner's American Silver Flatware, 1837-1910, both considered classics on the subject. (1) To those knowledgeable about Narragansett the pattern has acquired a mystique. The mere mention of the name evokes a frisson, and to the true flatware connoisseur touching a piece can be downright orgiastic.

Narragansett was a naturalistic pattern introduced in 1884. (2) Natural subjects such as shells, rocks, flowers, and foliage were prominent features of the rococo style, which developed in France in the eighteenth century, and of the rococo revival style, which appeared in England and the United States in the nineteenth. The use of natural forms evolved to the point of sometimes dictating the shape of objects as well as their decoration. Devoid of such frills as rococo C-and S-scrolls, this ultra-realistic style was fully developed in England by the 1840s and in the United States by the 1880s. Vegetal inspiration was most common, with sea life another favorite design source. When applied to flatware, the style led to spoon bowls modeled as flower blossoms, leaves, or shells, and handles that resembled twigs, bamboo, grapevines, or flowering branches. But no other naturalistic flatware as elaborate or as detailed as Narragansett was ever conceived.

All the pieces of Narragansett we have examined are constructed similarly The handle consists of a cast stem to which multiple elements, mainly marine-related, are applied all around. The larger shell appliques, almost certainly cast from actual specimens, are highly naturalistic; the smaller ones, although possibly modeled from real life, are more stylized. Details as small as grains of sand are included. The functional ends are either cast or die-stamped and sometimes also have applied decoration.

It was formerly thought that only eleven types of pieces were ever made in the Narragansett pattern: ten serving pieces (fish knife and fork, salad fork and spoon, sugar spoon, jelly spoon, preserve spoon, berry spoon, gravy ladle, and soup ladle) and one place piece (an oyster fork). (3) However, on a recent visit to the Gorham Company archives at Brown University in Providence, we found evidence for two additional serving pieces: a punch ladle and a large sugar sifter. (4) The fish knife and fork, salad fork and spoon, and soup ladle were pictured (in reverse) in the autumn 1885 Gorham catalogue, (5) and there are labeled photographs of these same pieces and of the berry spoon (properly oriented) in the archives. To our knowledge the other pieces have never been illustrated; nor is there a surviving written description of any Narragansett piece.

Plates IIa and IIb show a Narragansett fish serving set. The terminal of the knife handle is formed as the thin shell of a steamer, or soft clam. The handle stem is decorated with cattails and various small shells; the shells that look like oblong open umbrellas appear to be marine gastropods known as keyhole limpets (family Fissurellidae). (6) There are also the spiral shells of various sea snails, including what look like beaded periwinkles (family Littorinidae), and spirally corded dove shells (family Columbellidae). A fish overlies the junction of the stem and blade, and the top margins of the blade are encrusted with seaweed, shells, and sand. (7) The upper blade is embossed with a shell-inspired design. A long, narrow blade of sea grass arises from the front of the stem bottom and coils around the handle, terminating on the reverse at the top of the stem.

The terminal of the fish serving fork is formed as a thick quahog clamshell, with a tiny sand crab applied to it. Multiple small shells and seaweed occupy the front and back of the stem. The functional end takes the form of a trident with an unusual pierced middle tine. The upper borders are encrusted with sand, and the bowl and tines have distress marks on their fronts, suggesting damage from a prolonged undersea stay There was a precedent for fake "damage" in the work of George W Shiebler (1846-1920) of New York City, (8) but the Narragansett pattern is the only one we are aware of in American flatware that includes "damage" supposedly due to underwater exposure.