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Preview image of work. silver with gilt highlights,  Mug 930
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1904.157

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Mug

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Artists

Gorham Manufacturing Company (Gorham Co.) [design attributed to Harriet Sarah Walker];

Title

Mug

Creation Date

1879

Century

19th century

Dimensions

3 7/16 in. x 2 7/8 in. (8.73 cm. x 7.3 cm.)

Object Type

silver

Creation Place

North America, United States, Rhode Island

Medium and Support

silver with gilt highlights

Credit Line

Gift of the Misses Harriet and Sophia Walker

Copyright

Public Domain

Accession Number

1904.157

The Gorham Manufacturing Company of Providence, Rhode Island, was one of America’s pre–eminent producers of fine silver tablewares. This small mug, with ferns and butterflies, is executed in the Japanese taste, an example of the Aesthetic Movement in America. It is engraved with the Arms of the Mystic Owls, a private club in Atlanta, Georgia, that is believed to be associated with merchants in the cotton trade, which was re-established following the Civil War. Through her uncle Theophilus Wheeler Walker’s cotton manufacturing interests, Harriet Walker is believed to have been a member of this society and may have designed the heraldic device depicted here. After she and her sister Mary Sophia Walker became their uncle’s heirs, they commissioned in his memory the Walker Art Building, in which this gallery is located.

Keywords: flora   Greek key design   leaf   meander   pattern   plant   shield   text