1875 the Barge of Venus Electroplate Centerpiece by Middletown Silver Plate Co.

Details

Description

This item is currently in the collection of the Smithsonian, and the estate museum of President James Garfield.


“The Barge … Read more This item is currently in the collection of the Smithsonian, and the estate museum of President James Garfield.


“The Barge of Venus" Electroplate Centerpiece

designed 1876, by the Middletown Silver Plate Co., Middletown, Connecticut, the large rectangular plinth base engraved with flowers and fitted with a large coquille-form barge drawn by swans and piloted by Cupid through cattails, with attendant musical putti at the corners.
h. 12", l. 21", w. 11-3/4"

Literature: Gems of the Centennial Exhibition (New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1877), pp. 17-18 (illustrated)
Katharine Morrison McClinton, Collecting American Victorian Antiques (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1966), pp. 205-206 (illustrated)

Notes: This model was first shown at the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition, where "the novel and striking grace of the design made it the object of much attention . . . the figures of the swans and of the driver Cupid are neatly modeled, and, it must be confessed, in the highest degree artistic in in effect. The execution of the feathery coats of the swans is very elaborate, aiming to be natural, not conventional, and imitating very successfully the appearance of the wings and bodies." See less