A Gorham Mfg. Co. Silver Coffee Pot and Sugar Bowl from the Senator William Andrews Clark Service, Providence, Rhode Island,... (Total: 5 )

Description

A Gorham Mfg. Co. Silver Coffee Pot and Sugar Bowl from the Senator William Andrews Clark Service, Providence, Rhode Island, circa 1910
Marks: (lion-anchor-G), STERLING, PHW, SPAULDING & CO.
11-1/4 x 8-1/2 x 4-1/2 inches (28.6 x 21.6 x 11.4 cm) (coffee pot)
1594 grams

Exhibition History:
Indianapolis Museum of Art, 2015-2021

The coffee pot and sugar bowl, marked by Spaulding & Co., Chicago, Illinois, were ordered from Gorham by Senator William Clark of Montana and New York City in 1909. Clark ordered an extensive 129-piece service in the renaissance taste. These pieces were completed in 1910 and likely sold in 1927 at an auction of Clark's art collection.

Included in the lot are three publications including William Codman's An Illustrated History of Silverware Design, describing "The service designed by William C. Codman for the late Senator Clarke as illustrated is considered the best example of this period in silver executed in modern times." Bill Dedman and Paul Clark Newell, Jr.' Empty Mansions: The Mysterious Life of Huguette Clark and the Spending of a Great American Fortune (Ballantine Books, NYC, 2013), a well researched tale of the gilded age and the heiress of the Clark $300 million dollar fortune. Samuel J. Hough, The Gorham Silver Service of Senator Clark, Silver Magazine January/February 1997


OMG! The Clark Service is one of the great untold stories in American silver. This huge set of silver was made for one of the richest families in American but was broken up and sold off soon after Senator's Clarks death in 1925. When I was at the Dallas Museum of Art, we were able to acquire the tureen from this service, which I still believe is the only Clark piece in a public collection. When this coffee pot and sugar bowl surfaced, I felt it may well be from the Clark Service because the quality is so very high. The records at the Gorham Archives confirmed it was. Yeeha! CV

The Clark Tureen in the DMA collection appears in the Winter/spring 1996 issue of Decorative Arts Guild of North Texas, included in lot 74090.

Property from the Collection of Dr. Charles L. Venable



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