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Dessert Spoon with Scorpion Spoon
This is a spoon. It was manufactured by C. V. Gibert. It is dated ca. 1890 and we acquired it in 1996. Its medium is silver. It is a part of the Product Design and Decorative Arts department.
This is a rare opportunity for the museum to acquire a superlative service of flatware that meets the highest standards of design criteria and embodies our mission: to explore the many ways that design affects our daily lives.
Although this service was probably intended as much for display as for use, it was certainly designed to be a functional element in a final dinner course. It is a wonderful example of the expansive, highly specialized sets of cutlery that were considered ceremonially and functionally necessary for the elegant dinner table in late 19th-century Europe and America. Each piece of the service is an entirely unique sculptural unit. This, in combination with the fact that all of the pieces are numbered to correspond with slots in the case trays, suggests that the set was very special, perhaps even made for display at the Paris 1889 International Exhibition.
It is credited Museum purchase from Smithsonian Institution Collections Acquisition Program, Decorative Arts Association Acquisition, and Sarah Cooper-Hewitt Funds.
- Fork with Carved Figural Coral Handle Fork
- coral, silver plated, gold.
- The Robert L. Metzenberg Collection, gift of Eleanor L. Metzenberg.
- 1985-103-81
Its dimensions are
L x W x D: 17.9 × 3.8 × 3 cm (7 1/16 × 1 1/2 × 1 3/16 in.)
It has the following markings
On interior of bowl, stamped: [1] C.V.G. below star inside lozenge (maker's mark for Charles Victor Gilbert) [2] illegible mark (possibly board head mark indicating .800 fineness) On reverse of neck, stamped: [3] 1 [4] illegible mark (possibly board head mark indicating .800 fineness)
Cite this object as
Dessert Spoon with Scorpion Spoon; Manufactured by Charles Victor Gibert (French); France; silver; L x W x D: 17.9 × 3.8 × 3 cm (7 1/16 × 1 1/2 × 1 3/16 in.); Museum purchase from Smithsonian Institution Collections Acquisition Program, Decorative Arts Association Acquisition, and Sarah Cooper-Hewitt Funds; 1996-56-1
This object was previously on display as a part of the exhibition Feeding Desire: Design and the Tools of the Table, 1500-2005.
