Martelé (silver)

The work, a departure from machine-made commercial cutlery and hollowware, was named Martelé, from the French verb marteler, "to hammer".

The purity was raised again during 1905 to .9584, likely to match the Britannia standard so the silver would be of the highest grade and could not be considered "inferior," especially in light of the awards won.

For early items, each object began as a flat piece of silver, raised with hammering to the desired shape by the maker before being passed on to the chaser (the craftsman that added decoration).

Carpenter indicates that although it was introduced at New York's Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in 1897, Gorham waited to officially announce the introduction of this new line at the Exposition Universelle (1900) in Paris, attended by 50,000,000 people.

Martelé items include tea and coffee services, vases, candelabra, tankards, platters, and love cups.

[1][2][3][4][5][6][7] Reed & Barton's answer to Gorham's famous Martelé silver line was to produce objects of a similar style and quality.