THE AMERICA SHIELD: A PARCEL-GILT SILVER PLAQUE FROM THE CENTENNIAL EXHIBITION OF 1876

The America Shield was created by Gorham for its display at the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. The plaque, aptly numbered 1876, is redolent with iconography celebrating America and its founding as a nation. According to Gorham scholar Sam Hough, this plaque required 735 hours of chasing and was fashioned at a cost of $1,000.

Gorham produced only a few items expressly for the fair and displayed them again at later fairs including the 1889 Paris exposition. Gorham's most renowned piece at the 1876 Exhibition was the Century Vase, similarly brimming with American symbolism, and weighing 2,000 ounces. Hiwatha's Boat, another piece displayed at the fair, gained prominence because it was acquired by Mrs. Ulysses Grant and remains in the White House collection today. The recent surfacing of the America Shield offered here returns one of Gorham's most significant works to public view. (For a discussion of Gorham at the Centennial, see Charles Carpenter, Gorham Silver, 1997, and Charles Venable, Silver in America, 1994, pp. 108-11.)