Rare 19th Century Gorham Tested 90% Silver Water Ewer - 10.91 ozt. . Hand chased flower and leaf patterns in the middle of the pitcher body, with a curving spout and handle. Initials "ML" in extremely elaborate cursive beneath spout. Marked on the underside, with the left-facing passant lion indicating it was made during a very small window of time pre-Civil War, roughly 1855 to 1860. 

Size: 5 1/2 x 4 x 9 in. 

Weight: 10.91 ozt. 

The Gorham Manufacturing Company was founded in Providence, Rhode Island in 1831 by Jabez Gorham and Henry Webster. Their coin silver flatware was selected by Mary Todd Lincoln for the White House in 1859. In 1868, they made the switch from coin silver to sterling silver and produced everything from knives, forks, and spoon sets to coffee pots and serving bowls. In 1848, Gorham’s silver marks consisted of a lion, an anchor, and the letter “G.” Then, from 1848 through about 1860, the lion markings faced left instead of right. Sterling tea sets and some other hollowware items were assigned numbers in a decimal sequence. Pieces created between 1868 and 1884 were marked with capital letters. From then until 1933 unique iconography was used, including wolf’s heads and open parachutes. A series of mergers eventually ended in 2009 when the company went bankrupt after being acquired by Lenox Holdings. 

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