40 
House & Garden 
Bradley & Merrill 
Between Architecture , Furniture and Silver Exist Distinct Analogies 
Which Can Guide Us in Their Choice and Arrangement 
H. D. EBERLEIN and ABBOT McCLURE 
V ERY definite analogies exist between 
historic design in table silver and con¬ 
temporary design in architecture and furniture, 
and if we wish to secure a consistent harmony, 
either by analogy or by contrast, between 
table appointments and the rest of the general 
environment, we shall do well to heed these 
analogies. 
The fashions evolved by the master silver¬ 
smiths of former centuries are in great measure 
followed today, either in direct reproductions 
or in adaptations that embody the dominant 
qualities of their prototypes. There is, there¬ 
fore, a wide scope for the exercise of principles 
of selection no matter whether we are collect¬ 
ing old silver or purchasing the product of 
modern manufacture. 
Seventeenth Century silver very generally 
followed the robust, rectilinear inspiration so 
clearly perceptible in the furniture design of 
the same period. Spoons are necessarily less 
subject to variation of contour than are candle¬ 
sticks and the divers items of hollow ware, 
such as salts, bowls, teapots, tankards and 
the like. Nevertheless, they did display 
unmistakable influence of the changing styles, 
and we find that the typical 17 th Century 
spoons, with elliptical or oval bowls, had 
straight and massive flat stems or handles, 
the end of the handle being slightly turned up, 
flattened, broad and notched by two clefts 
so as to make three points or projections, 
somewhat in the manner of a trefoil. Down 
the back of the bowl ran a reinforcing or 
grooved “rat-tail” to give stability. This 
trifid form of spoon is sometimes known as 
the “hind’s foot and rat-tail” pattern. 
In the tankards, cans or mugs, beakers and 
candlesticks the rectilinear influence and 
sturdy proportions were much more pro¬ 
nounced. The bodies of the first three were 
either vertical up and down or else slightly 
tapered, that is to say, beakers flared out a 
little toward the top while tapered tankards, 
flagons and cans were of slightly less diameter 
at the top than at the bottom. Candlesticks, 
as a rule, had a slightly tapering or perfectly 
vertical, straight, plain stock. The moldings 
on all these pieces were of similar contour to 
the moldings commonly employed in archi¬ 
tecture and for the embellishment of furniture. 
By far the greater portion of American 
silver produced before about 1760 or 1765, 
however, belonged within the sphere of 
Baroque influence rather than the sphere 
wherein Renaissance traditions still to some 
(Continued on page 66) 
A modern interpretation of the Adam period 
is a silver urn used as a center table decoration. 
The silver service plate conforms to it in design, 
and the small silver and crystal are of the same 
classic period. Silver from Gorham; crystal 
All the details of this rather unusually set 
table are pure Empire with the exceptioti of the 
center decoration. The exquisite swan-shaped 
bouillon cups, the crystal candlesticks, the 
auaint shaped silver, and the green and white 
