Bizarre Gorham Sterling Serving Pieces?? Fom Gumps

[realsouthwest]

Has anyone ever seen Gorham pieces such as these? Sold by Gumps' Department Store in San Francisco. Any info welcomed:
pattern name, age.....Thank you.

[Aguest]

I would say these pieces date circa 1865, they share certain similarities with Gotham's "Calla Lily" pattern and also the "3-leaf" design on your pieces is similar to the "3-leaf" design on Gorham's "Bird's Nest" pattern, both of which were patented in 1865 ::: There was a designer named George Wilkinson at Gorham during this time and he designed patterns similar to this, so perhaps he was the designer or at least he greatly influenced the design elements here :::

I don't know if your pieces have a pattern name, but collectors might refer to them as "ball-end" or something like that ::: There was an "aesthetic movement" in silver during this time and many of the pieces had naturalistic elements (such as leaves) or geometric elements (such as spheres), and in your case we have a combination of these two elements ::: This piece seems to fall into the category of "aesthetic movement silver" and many collectors would describe your pieces as such :::

I think your knife might be a fish knife, and your fork might be a seafood fork, I have a feeling that this was part of an ornate fish set, but I could be wrong there ::: Maybe the knife is a butter knife and the fork is an olive fork? :::

This is the only similar piece I could find, but it might not be an exact match :::

[realsouthwest]

THANK YOU Aguest. Can you let me know the URL source of the photo that you posted and/or the name of the pattern in the piece in the photo. Much appreciated. I searched for hours and couldn't come close!!

[Aguest]

It was just this pic, no other information, this pic may have come from a high-end retail shop based on the lighting, looks professional to me :::
The handle of the spoon doesn't quite match your pieces, and your leaves seem to have more detail and articulation than the leaves on the spoon :::
How did you reach the conclusion that Gump's was the retail shop which sold your piece? Do you have an original box, or is it just kind of like a story which has been passed down the generations?

Something else that might be of interest to you is the discovery and mining of the "Comstock Lode" which was a discovery in Nevada which hit the newspapers in 1859 as lots of miners moved into the area ::: "The total production of ore extracted and milled in the Comstock District, 1860 to June 30, 1880, was 6,971,641 tons, 640 pounds" ::: This sudden over-supply of silver may have fueled the aesthetic movement in silver flatware and led to larger and more ornate patterns with applied details, and silversmiths could "fully cast" certain pieces which was a more labor-intensive and used more silver during the process as compared to the "die-stamping" process :::

Given the level of detail on your pieces, I would not be surprised if they were "fully cast" as compared to the casserole spoon which seems to be more of a "die-stamped" pattern, this topic arises when looking at Gorham's "Bird's Nest" pattern, some pieces of Bird's Nest seem to be "fully cast" while others seem to be more "die-stamped," and it seems applicable in this situation as well :::

[realsouthwest]

They came in a cotton flannel bag (of appropriate size) with an embossed "S&G Gump Stores" label.

Once again I thank you for your help. You've obviously done quite a bit of research in this collectible field!