Vase

The mid-nineteenth century witnessed an efflorescence of creativity in the American silver industry, fueled by the burgeoning middle class’s increasing demand for refined luxury goods. Silversmiths devoted considerable time and creative energy to generating an endless variety of new designs and patterns. During the 1860s and 1870s silver flatware ornamented with portrait medallions inspired by antique coins and cameos enjoyed widespread popularity, with virtually every American silversmith producing their own proprietary "medallion" pattern. The New York firm of Wood and Hughes, one of the finest and largest manufacturers of American silver, created numerous flatware patterns during the second half of the nineteenth century, including several different medallion patterns, one of which has been modified to serve as the handles of this vase. Together the handles and the exquisitely chased classical head on the vase’s body attest to the prevailing fascination with art and decorative vocabulary of the classical world and Wood and Hughes’s position as a leading silver firm and tastemaker.