Frank M. Whiting Company

Whiting Manufacturing Company

In 1840, Albert C. Tift and the silversmith William Dean Whiting (1815–1891) formed a partnership for the manufacture of jewelry in Attleboro, MA. The partnership flourished and by 1847, they had built a new, larger facility and added silver combs and other silver wares to their production, becoming one of the leading manufacturers of silver combs in America. After Tift retired in 1864, Whiting carried on the business with other partners until 1866 when the firm was reorganized as a stock company, Whiting Manufacturing Co., with Whiting as President. At that time, the jewelry department was closed and the firm concentrated on the manufacture of silver table wares. In support of this new focus the firm recruited designers such as Charles Osborne (1848–1920), who had studied at the National Academy of Design. Noted for its high quality of design, Whiting received numerous patents for its inventive designs for silver flatware and hollowware and was considered one of the premier silver manufacturers in the country. In 1893, an official French governmental report on silversmithing in America ranked Whiting as third in both taste and production behind Tiffany and Company and Gorham Manufacturing Company.

In 1876 a fire destroyed the factory in Attleboro and manufacturing operations were relocated to New York City. Although the Gorham Co. acquired a large financial interest in Whiting in 1905, Whiting continued to operate independently. The Whiting firm became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Gorham about 1924 and its equipment and operations were subsequently moved to Providence, R.I.

Lily Pattern Flatware

Charles Osborne, who began working as a designer at Whiting in 1871, was awarded a patent in 1902 for a “Design for a Handle for Spoons or Similar Articles” in a design that later was called the Lily pattern by Whiting. Well-recognized by the silver industry for the quality of his designs, Osborne was recruited by both Dominick & Haff and Tiffany. He left Whiting in 1878 to work at Tiffany’s but returned to Whiting in 1888 as head designer. In 1892 Osborne was promoted to superintendent and in 1905 he became a vice president of the Whiting firm.

The Lily pattern with its curvilinear and ornate foliate motifs represents one of the most overtly Art Nouveau patterns in American silver. It was a full-line pattern produced to meet society’s requirements for fashionable Victorian dining which included a minimum of eight courses and as many as 18. Each course required a specific silver implement designed for eating as well as one for serving the item(s) in that course. Hood, et al. reported that as many as 146 different pieces could be offered in a pattern while more recently it has been reported that more than 190 pieces were available in the Lily pattern. Many of those pieces were also made in different sizes, grades or weights. Knives made for an individual’s use included dinner, luncheon, tea, dessert, fish, bird (duck), fruit, orange, melon and butter spreaders. Dinner knives in the Lily pattern could be acquired with a “thick or a “thin” hollow handle and either 10 ¾” or 9 ½” in length, while other implements were available with either a flat or hollow handle as well as variations in the overall size or weight.

The Lily pattern’s popularity endured for over a century. First produced in 1902, production of the Lily pattern flatware continued with small changes such as switching from silver plated blunt-style knife blades to stainless steel French-style knife blades after Gorham assumed control of Whiting in 1924. The Lily pattern was subsequently discontinued by Gorham but then was reintroduced in the 1960s with a Gorham back stamp and a more limited number of piece types. From 1986 through at least 2006, it was available “Made to order”.

The proposed dinner knife (19/20.2:1) is in Whiting’s Lily pattern and has a blunt blade, a thick hollow handle with a sculptural lily motif, and a bolster between the blade and handle. It bears the early Whiting marks including the Whiting logo, “PAT 1902” and “R’D 1902”, that are evidence of a production date between 1902 and 1916. The dinner knife is one piece of a three-piece “place setting” of flatware, the minimum service required for an individual’s use for the entrée course at dinner. The place setting would also include a dinner fork (19/20.2:3) and a teaspoon (19/20.2:7). These pieces would be augmented by other utensils such as a dessert fork (19/20.2:5), butter spreader (19.20.2:8), or tablespoon (19/20.2:6) that would be needed for the food served on a given occasion.

The Lily pattern flatware was acquired by the donor’s great-grandparents, Abram E. Brown and Ray G. Brown not long after it was first manufactured. The Browns, who married in 1900, were prominent residents of Cleveland, Ohio. They were the parents of one daughter, Iris M. Brown Robertson (b. 1904), who in turn was the mother of two daughters, Joan Robertson Jones (b. 1934) and Marilyn (Lyn) Robertson Lutz (b. 1935).