Antiques | Appraise It!
American Silver and Enamel Serving Spoon, Gorham Manufacturing Company, circa 1880
When clients sent this spoon for evaluation, their expectation was that they owned a piece of Russian enameled silver. Russian silversmiths may have had a hand in the crafting of this elegant object. If they did, they were living in America and working at the Providence, Rhode Island-based Gorham Manufacturing Company. Gorham was founded in 1831, and for many years their chief product was spoons. The similarity to the early 19th-century Russian silver and enamel works made famous by Fabergé was no accident. Gorham hired Russian artisans during the late 1880s and early 1890 to do their enameling.
Gorham produced exquisite enamel work, which this serving spoon affirms. The aesthetic movement design of the engraved handle is enhanced by colorful champlevé enamel inlays. The elongated bowl was gilded with a matte finish and then wonderfully bright-cut. The engraving technique of bright cutting is achieved by engraving at an angle to create reflective facets. The enamel work on this piece is particularly fine.
This nine-inch serving spoon is marked with Gorham’s hallmarks of the last quarter of the 19th century (rampant loin–anchor–G), sterling, and 375.
I would expect this fine antique spoon, in like-new condition, would sell at auction for $400 to $500.
Antique Oriental Wool Rug, “Lesghi Star” Shirvan, Northeast Caucasus, late 19th century, 4’8” x 3’8”
Tribal villages in the area of the Caucasus Mountains (bounded by the Black and Caspian Seas to the east and west, Russia to the north, and Turkey and Iran to the south) have produced very distinctive Oriental rug types since at least the end of the 18th century. The designs are often dense all-over patterns of geometric elements—squares, diamonds, stars, and frets. The rugs are generally small, with wide multiple borders.
Caucasian rugs and carpets may resemble each other in general appearance but differ materially in detail. Weaving techniques involving the warp and weft most often define the differences between these regional rugs that can otherwise closely resemble each other in pattern. “Warp” and “weft” are technical terms for the two types of fiber. In the case of Oriental weavings these fibers would be cotton, wool, and/or silk used to create woven product. Initially I believed I was looking at an antique Oriental “Star” Kazak wool rug, when I noticed details that determine the regional attributions of old Caucasian weavings. The rug is actually a late-19th-century Northeast Caucasus “Lesghi” Shirvan. As with a “Star” Kazak, the “Lesghi” designation refers to the star-like designs, and you will sometimes see these finely woven rugs referred to as Leshgi Star Shirvans.
From the submitted photograph, the rug appeared to be fairly worn, and as such a fair market value for this weaving in worn condition would have been about $1000. But upon first-hand inspection the weaving was discovered to be actually quite sound. The warp and weft were stable as well as having all the richness of color of its time. The lustrous indigo blue was especially striking. Caucasian weavings from the 19th century are very collectible. Truly old Caucasian rugs in any sort of reasonable condition are quite expensive in today’s market. I would estimate the auction value of this finely woven rug, which embodies the “art under foot” beauty of a true antique Oriental weaving, at $3000 to $4000.
Carleton E. Watkins, American, 1829-1916 Mounted Albumen Print Boudoir Photo Cards, 8½ x 5½ inches, circa 1876
Carleton E. Watkins, the son of an innkeeper, left his home in Oneonta, New York, in 1949 after the discovery of gold in California and ended up working as a clerk in a San Francisco department store. In 1854, Watkins was asked by a daguerreotypist in San Jose to tend his gallery after his operator quit. Although Watkins knew nothing of photographic processes, he agreed. For the first few days Watkins was simply the caretaker of the studio, but when the owner could not find a new operator, he instructed him on the daguerreotype process. With only the briefest instructions, in a short period Watkins was able to make portraits and completely operated the gallery. In 1858 Watkins returned to San Francisco where he established his own photographic studio for portraits and view photography.
As a view photographer, Watkins did not have to travel far from California to find his muse. Summer after summer he used a specially constructed camera to photograph Yosemite and the great trees of the Mariposa Grove on glass plates ranging in size up to 18 x 22 inches. On his early trips into Yosemite, a 12-mule train was required to carry Watkins’s equipment. His place in the history of photography was secured in 1861 with a series of 30 large-scale plates and 100 stereos taken in the Yosemite Valley.
The Yosemite pictures were exhibited in New York in 1862 and were partly responsible for the 1864 legislation which declared the valley inviolate. In 1867, his mammoth plates of Yosemite won him a medal at the Paris International Exposition, as well as earning him international recognition as a landscape photographer. In 1906, he was negotiating the sale of his life’s work to Stanford University when his studio and collection were destroyed by the fire that followed the San Francisco earthquake.
These two sepia-tone prints are part of “Watkins’ New Boudoir Series Yo Semite and Pacific Coast” series. They are albumen print photographs on thick cardboard mounts, referred to as Boudoir or Cabinet cards. The mounts, each titled and identified as Watkins New Boudoir Series Yo Semite and Pacific Coast, 427 Montgomery Street, San Francisco, are quite durable and difficult to bend. Each has a retail value of $400 to $500.
Chinese Export Porcelain, 18th and 19th Centuries
Although Europeans had been trading with the Chinese since 1557, Americans did not enter the China trade until 1785. British mercantile regulations had prevented the colonists from trading with the Orient. Despite these regulations, seafaring men of the new nation entered into foreign trade. This is how this blue and white china became known to New Englanders as the tableware of the American Revolution.
Most of the porcelain shipped from China to the West during the 17th through the 19th centuries was known as China trade porcelain or Chinese export. Two of the most commonly known forms are the blue and white Canton and blue and white Nanking ware.
Porcelain was manufactured and fired in the kilns at the Provence of Ching-Te Chen, then sent to the seaside ports of Canton and Nanking for the final decorating process by Chinese artists and craftsmen working in the enameling shops. The names Canton and Nanking allude as much to the decoration and design on the ware as to its port of export.
Canton has several characteristics that distinguish it from the very similar blue and white Nanking pattern. Both Canton and Nanking ware are hand painted with a composition of a coastal village scene consisting of tea houses, arched bridges, willow trees, meandering streams, distant mountains, and an absence of figures. The most obvious difference between Canton and Nanking patterns is the border designs of each. The border of Canton patterns has a blue lattice network and inner border of wavy or scalloped lines called clouds. Nanking borders are ornamented with a geometric lattice and spearhead design and may also have an application of burnished gold. Unlike the finer quality and reliable color of Nanking ware, Canton pigments vary in intensity from a washed-out gray-blue to cobalt blue, depending on the varied intensities of heat within the kiln during the firing process.
Chinese export porcelain was shipped to Europe and America in the holds of cargo ships, which resulted in its also beginning referred to as ballast ware. More than one ship was lost at sea. Technological advances have made it possible to salvage long-lost wrecks. The Oriental porcelain in their holds has driven the salvage efforts. The most famous recovered shipwreck cargo, known as the Nanking, came from a Dutch ship which sank in 1752. The hundreds of tons of tea on board would have netted the original owner a huge sum, while the 130,000 pieces of blue and white porcelain in the ship’s hold was a minor concern to the paymasters. Yet when the recovered porcelain cargo of the Nanking came to market in 1986, it made $20,000,000.
These handsome examples would typically sell for, in a retail setting, from left to right:18th century blue and white Nanking saucer, $50. 19th century blue and white Canton Chinese scallop edge bowl, $300. 19th century blue and white square saucer, $25.
by Linda Dyer | photography by Jerry Atnip
