L'Exposition Universelle, Paris , 1900: AN IMPORTANT AMERICAN SILVER-GILT AND JEWEL-MOUNTED CUT-GLASS TWO-HANDLED VASE, MARTELÉ, Gorham Mfg. Co., Providence, RI, 1900

the cut-glass vase decorated with mermaids attending merbabies amongst fish, swirling tides and aquatic plants, supported on a lobed shaped circular silver foot chased with dolphin with webbed-wings spaced by shellwork mounted with cabochon jewels and topped by cattails rising to catfish heads, the reeded handles springing from seaweed and terminating in scrolled leaf-tips at upper rim, the neck rising from pendant lobes set with jewels and chased with bellflowers topped by petal-chased lobes and crimped rim, all raised on a square marble plinth

Exposition Universale Internationale, Paris, 1900
Property of a European Collection
Christie's, New York, 17 June 1992, lot 4

Katharine Morrison McClinton, Collecting American 19th Century Silver, 1968, illus p. 104.

Larry Pristo, Martelé 950-1000 Fine Gorham's Nouveau Art Silver, 2002, p. 192, illus. p. 101.

marble base added later but detachable- held one by one scew; lower nexk with some small knicks; glass very good condtion, color good, chasing nice, overall very good condition
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

This extraordinary Martelé vase was debuted, and presumably sold at the Exposition Universalle, Paris, in May, 1900.  Although production of Vase 2126 was begun in 1899, costing records show that it was not completed until 23 January 1900.  The net factory price of this vase was a staggering $750.

 

The silver used for the foot, handles and neck was valued at $33.30 and weighed 37oz.  The identity of the silversmith who raised the vase was not recorded, but the archives indicate that the silver was raised in ninety-two hours and with a labor cost of $41.40 ($.45 per hour).  Larry Pristo notes in Martelé 950-1000 Fine Gorham's Art Nouveau Silver, 2002, p. 31, that in 1900 the highest paid Martelé makers, those with the with the most seniority and talent, earned $25 per sixty hour work week ($.42 per hour).  The high labor cost of the raising of Vase 2126 suggests that it was made by one of Gorham's most esteemed silversmiths.

 

Vase 2126 was then chased for an additional one-hundred-and-twenty-four hours by Martelé senior chaser Joseph Steed Aspin (1862-1937), with a labor cost of $62.  English-born Aspin began his career at Gorham in the autumn of 1886, and changed his surname to "Washington" in 1904.  According to Providence, RI city records Aspin lived as a boarder at 34 Pine Street.  At the time of the production of this vase, his wages were $24 per week ($.40 per hour).  Other important Martelé works chased by Aspin are the free-standing mirror in the collection of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the dressing table in the collection of the Dallas Museum of Art, also exhibited at the 1900 Exposition, on which he collaborated with Robert Bain and two other senior chasers.  Aspin left Gorham in October, 1907 and for the next twenty years was listed at multiple Providence addresses as both a "designer" and "silversmith".

 

Other costs associated with the creation of the vase included $12 for gilding and $.45 for oxidizing and finishing.  The jewels, which were valued at $36, required fifteen hours to set and had a labor cost of $5.25.

 

The cut-glass body, which cost an additional and astounding $250, was provided by T.G. Hawkes & Co. of Corning, NY.  Irish immigrant Thomas Gibson Hawkes founded T.G. Hawkes  in Corning in 1880, and the company was incorporated ten years later.  As Hawkes' firm only cut glass blanks provided by other manufactures, they could not control the quality of glass blanks they received.  To solve this issue, in 1903 Hawkes partnered with English-born glassmaker Frederick Carder to establish Stuben Glass Works- primarily to produce glass blanks for T.G. Hawkes and other firms.

 

The intricacy and fineness of the glass engraving on the present lot in indicative of Bohemian craftsmanship, and the three most prominent engravers working in Corning at the end of the 19^th century were Joseph Hazelbauer, Fridolin Kretchmann and William Hieronymous Fritchie.  Of the three artists, Fritchie's work is most similar in spirit and execution, and likely he is responsible for this superlative engraving.  Born in North Bohemia in 1860, Fritchie is known to have worked in England and Scotland before relocating to Dublin in the early 1880's, where he was employed by William Whyte & Sons.  Fritchie was known to have been especially skilled in engraving floral and foliate motifs, and in 1885 he won the bronze medal at the Dublin Artisans' Exhibition.  Additionally, his Toilette Jug, circa 1880, also presumed to be exhibition piece, is in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.  By 1888 Fritche and his family had moved to America, where he was hired by T.G. Hawkes & Co.