Wilcox Silver Plate Co.
Founded1865; 159 years ago (1865)
Headquarters
Meriden, Connecticut
,
United States
Area served
Nationally and to some extent internationally
Key people
Jedediah Wilcox, founder[1]
Productssilver products, hollowware and flatware

The Wilcox Silver Plate Co. (1867-c. 1980) was formed in Meriden, Connecticut. From 1865 to 1867, it was known as the Wilcox Brittania Co.[1] In 1898, the company was acquired by the International Silver Company, headquartered in Meriden. After the acquisition, the Wilcox Silver Plate Co. brand continued until at least c. 1980.[2][3]

Wilcox Silver Plate Co. designs are in several museum collections including the Art Institute of Chicago; British Museum in London; Brooklyn Museum; Cranbrook Art Museum, Bloomfield Hills, MI; Dallas Museum of Art; High Museum of Art, Atlanta; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Metropolitan Museum of Art; Minneapolis Institute of Art; Mint Museum, Charlotte, NC; Newark Museum, NJ; New Orleans Museum of Art; Philadelphia Museum of Art, St. Louis Art Museum; Wolfsonian-FIU in Miami Beach; and Yale University Art Gallery in New Haven, CT.[4]

Design by Jean G. Theobald for Wilcox Silver Plate Co. / International Silver Company, (1928).

Over the years, Wilcox Silver Plate Co. designs have been exhibited in several museum exhibitions in the United States and beyond since at least 1934.[4] In 2005–07, designs were included in the touring exhibition Modernism in American Silver: 20th-Century Design, organized by the Dallas Museum of Art, which also travelled to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC.[5]

One of the most exhibited Wilcox Silver Plate Co. / International Silver Company designs is the space-age looking urn designed by Eliel Saarinen (1934).[4] The urn was exhibited in St. Louis Modern (2015–16)[6] and Cranbrook Goes to the Movies: Films and Their Objects, 1925–1975 (2014–15).[7]

On June 11, 2014, a Paul Lobel-design tea set for Wilcox Silver Plate Co. sold for US$377,000 at auction at Sotheby's in New York.[8]

Design by Jean G. Theobald and Virginia Hamill for Wilcox Silver Plate Co. / International Silver Company, (1928).

References

  1. ^ a b Gillespie, Charles Bancroft & Curtis, George Munson. (1906). "A century of Meriden: A historic record and pictorial description of the town of Meriden, Connecticut and the men who made it, from earliest settlement to close of its first century of incorporation", part III, pp. 44-47. Retrieved January 1, 2017
  2. ^ Hogan, Edmund P. (1977). An American heritage: A book about the International Silver Company, (p. 164). Taylor Publishing Company: Dallas, TX.
  3. ^ (Undated). "A Guide to the International Silver Company Records, 1853-1921". University of Connecticut libraries website. Retrieved January 1, 2017.
  4. ^ a b c (March 16, 2016). "Wilcox Silver Plate Co. designs in collections, at auction, and in exhibitions". Design Meriden / artdesigncafe.com. Retrieved January 1, 2017.
  5. ^ Stern, Jewel. (2005). "Modernism in American Silver: 20th-Century Design". Dallas Museum of Art and Yale University Press. Retrieved January 1, 2017.
  6. ^ (September 8, 2015)."Press release: Saint Louis Art Museum marks Gateway Arch anniversary with St. Louis Modern". St. Louis Art Museum. Retrieved January 1, 2017).
  7. ^ (Undated). "Exhibition detail: Cranbrook Goes to the Movies Films and Their Objects, 1925–1975". Cranbrook Art Museum website. Retrieved January 1, 2017.
  8. ^ (Undated). "Paul Lobel: An important and rare four-piece coffee service". sothebys.com. Retrieved January 1, 2017.
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