manufactured by Gorham Mfg. Co., Providence, Rhode Island, 1962
silver, ebony, formica
comprising a teapot, coffee pot, creamer, sugar bowl and cover, pitcher, stirring spoon, and tray
11⁵⁄₈ in. (29.5 cm.) high, the coffee pot; 27¹⁄₈ in. (69 cm.) long, over handles, the tray
all with maker's mark, stamped Gorham Sterling, numbered 1460-1464, and 1468, and with date symbol for 1962, the spoon marked GORHAM STERLING
256 oz. 8 dwt. (7,974 gr.) gross weight

Christie's, New York, 19 December 2006, lots 1028 and 1029
Acquired from the above by the present owner

J. Stern, Modernism in American Silver, exhibition catalogue, Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, Texas, 2005, pp. 260-261, fig. 13.9 (one of this model).
E. Williams, Gorham Silver: Designing Brilliance, 1850-1970, exhibition catalogue, Rhode Island School of Design, Museum of Art, Providence, Rhode Island, 2019, pp. 194, 212-213, figs. 201, 218-219 (examples of this model).

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Lot Essay

This coffee service was the centerpiece of Gorham's contemporary holloware collection, entitled Circa '70. The line, which included candelabra, bowls and a mixing pitcher, was the brainchild of Donald Colflesh, the firm's staff designer. Gorham's promotional literature reveals space travel was a source of inspiration, but these works also relate stylistically to the works of Frederick Miller of the Cleveland Institute of Art and the designs of Henning Koppel for Georg Jensen.
The coffee service was designed in 1958 and introduced in 1960, while the formica tray was introduced after Colflesh left the company in 1962. Examples of this model are in the collections of the Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, Texas (obj. no. 1997.2.1-4), the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois (ref. no. 2009.1036.1-5), and the Rhode Island School of Design, Museum of Art, Providence, Rhode Island (obj. no. 2017.47).