Artistry in Silver Patterns

Wallace made some lovely patterns back in the day. The book “Beauty Moods in Silver” features several popular patterns. Patterns that my eyes are drawn to though, were all designed in the Gilded Age. The 1899 Art Nouveau pattern, Love Disarmed, by Reed and Barton is a stunning and sumptuous design. My favorite! ~ The pattern was described on one website like this: “Dressed in a sheer gown with shoulders exposed, Venus’ shapely figure forms the handle of each piece.  Surrounded by flowers, curling vines and acanthus leaves, she looks down at her son, Cupid, who coyly peeks out from under her right arm.  Holding his quiver of arrows, Cupid looks up, seeming to ask for something, perhaps his bow?  Venus’ right arm is held high behind her head, she may have the bow hidden there behind her mantle of flowers.” — Fran Repousse.Wordpress.com

A Higher Artistry Wallace Third Dimension Beauty

A composer, bending over his piano, strums a motif on the keyboard. It is beautiful even in its unadorned simplicity.

The composer nods his head in approval. He is satisfied with his basic material, from which he will build a masterpiece of sound-he then proceeds to score an orchestral pattern of sonorous harmonies, with sweep and depth and breadth and counter melodies to enrich the main theme, scoring it to completely form a third dimensional grandeur. Lo! the simple motif has become a symphony— and, finally, we are privileged to hear a glorious production, sculptured in the perfect fullness of its musical conception.

It is this rounded beauty, this three dimensional quality, which Wallace has added to silver flatware in many fascinating and subtle ways. The focal point of the design, or the design in its entirety, may thus be climaxed by this sculptural technique. In this superb quality of sculpture, the front, back and profile have a correlated artistry that blends into a form of glorified unity. In ordinary flatware, the motif is simply "embossed" upon the surface of the sterling.

The design has been executed in only one or two dimensions. The resultant effect is comparatively dull and flat, and the fascinating interplay of scintillating highlights, reflections and shadows in the silver itself reduced to a minimum. In Wallace Sculptured Sterling, the pattern is not just a surface adornment, attractive only when viewed front-face. Wallace Sculptured Patterns have a third dimension beauty.

Picture a coin with the head of a man stamped in relief upon its face. Then picture the bust of that same man, sculptured by a master, the marble fully and magnificently formed, front, rear and profile and you have the basic difference between a design that is embossed on the surface and a design that is sculptured in three dimensions.

In Wallace Sculptured Sterling, form is fundamental, because only through the realization of full form can the shimmering beauty of the silver be fully revealed, and the mood of the pattern properly expressed. As in a symphony, the simple motif is made sculpturally perfect in the final drama of its conception. To possess a set of sterling sculptured by Wallace is to own a masterpiece that is a genuine work of art. — William Wallce for Wallace Silver, 1943

🍽Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J. Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia