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This seems a rather obscure pattern. Anyone have info. on it of an official nature that may establish facts...introduction, discontinuance, market (household or commercial supply), designer, etc.?

A set of three pieces for Hotel Del Monte on a Worthpoint record claims Oakland was a 1903 pattern. No reference is cited. Watson did have a sterling design in that year named Oakland, but the evidence on this demi-spoon clearly shows 1910 for the patent on this "Del Monte" sample. The style has some similarity to Reed & Barton's Modern Art, so it's possible that Gorham was trying to introduce a competitive pattern for selective commercial wares clients which simply didn't last as the Edwardian era closed out and WWI brought on taste changes. I still find nothing to confirm the alleged naming of the pattern.

A listed cup & saucer in a vitrified china with the Del Monte crest has surfaced and seems likely to be the matched pattern to go with this silverware service. It was supplied by Nathan-Dohrmann Co. of San Francisco and made by John Maddock & Sons Ltd. of England, marks which place the ware after 1896 to the period before 1914 (N-D Co. changed to Dohrmann Hotel Supply). A Calisphere photo of a dining room around 1910 (the second hotel era) appears to reveal this pattern on some plates...a b/w image of less than desirable resolution...the Maddock china was blue decoration on white body.