An Impressive Sterling Silver Gilt Dinner Service in the "Violet" Pattern Made for Washington Augustus Roebling and Emily Warren Roebling, Gorham Mfg. Co., Providence, RI, Most Pieces 1960, With Some Earlier Pieces Dated 1889

All cast, chased, and engraved with shell and wave borders and violets, comprising a large rectangular meat dish, a small rectangular meat dish, two bread dishes, a side dish for jardiniere, two footed oil and vinegar stands, a footed double vegetable dish, two footed olive dishes, two footed condiment stands, a creamer, a sauceboat, a pair of candlesticks, a footed slop bowl, seven various serving spoons or servers, seven dinner knives, ten luncheon knives, nine dinner forks, eleven luncheon forks, ten fish forks, and seven seafood forks, most items engraved "Roebling" and/or with date "1865-1890," and purpose of vessel. (78 items total).

16 1/2 in. x 12 in. (largest), Total weight: 530.54 oz. t. (weighable silver)

Provenance:

Washington Augustus Roebling (1837-1926) and Emily Warren Roebling (1843-1903), and Mary G. Roebling (1905-1994) and Paul Roebling (1934-1994), thence by descent.

A Pennsylvania gentleman.

Note:

Washington A. Roebling is best-known as the civil engineer who built the Brooklyn Bridge, and his wife Emily W. Roebling took over and finished the project after he fell ill. The construction began in 1869 and was completed in 1883.

This sumptuous dinner service attests to the Roeblings' extreme wealth, made possible not only by these large-scale engineering projects but also Washington's stake in the company founded by his father John A. Roebling, which produced electrical and telegraph wire and bridge cable.

Mary G. Roebling, Washington's granddaughter-in-law, inherited the service, and with the help of her son, Paul Roebling, continued to add to it in the 1960s by commissioning Gorham to produce new pieces made in the same pattern. This lot represents only a portion of the larger service. Mary is best-known as a banking magnate who was the first female president of a major U.S. bank, Trenton Trust Company.

Photocopies of the original invoices from Gorham, dated June 1 and August 1, 1960, along with other related documents accompany this lot.