Sauce Ladle

John R. Wendt

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The mid-nineteenth century witnessed an efflorescence of creativity in the American silver industry, fueled by the burgeoning middle class’s increasing demand for refined luxury goods. Silversmiths devoted considerable time and creative energy to generating an endless variety of new designs and patterns. During the 1860s and 1870s silver flatware ornamented with portrait medallions inspired by antique coins and cameos enjoyed widespread popularity, with virtually every American silversmith producing their own proprietary "medallion" pattern. In 1862, the German-born silversmith John R. Wendt received the first patent for a medallion pattern, which is seen here in this elegant ladle. This pattern inspired innumerable variations and inaugurated a veritable mania for medallion flatware. Although this ladle is marked by the Philadelphia retailer J. E. Caldwell, most of the surviving examples of this pattern are marked by Ball, Black & Co. of New York, who held Wendt’s work in such high esteem that they forged a special relationship with him whereby Wendt occupied several floors in their building. Among medallion flatware, Wendt’s pattern truly sets the standard.

The American Wing

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The American Wing's ever-evolving collection comprises some 20,000 works of art by African American, Euro American, Latin American, and Native American men and women. Ranging from the colonial to early-modern periods, the holdings include painting, sculpture, works on paper, and decorative arts—including furniture, textiles, ceramics, glass, silver, metalwork, jewelry, basketry, quill and bead embroidery—as well as historical interiors and architectural fragments.

Metropolitan Museum of Art