Named for a former Japanese province and porcelain production center, Hizen was the most overtly Japonesque of Gorham Manufacturing Company's flatware patterns. The dragon on the handle and the carp on the bowl of this berry spoon are motifs derived from Japanese fine and decorative arts increasingly imported to the United States following the 1854 Convention of Kanagawa, which established trade between Japan and the West. Its textured and polychrome surface, achieved through hammering and parcel-gilding, imitates Japanese mixed metalwork.

Adapted from

Charles L. Venable, Silver in America, 1840-1940: A Century of Splendor (Dallas, Texas: Dallas Museum of Art; New York, New York; Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1994), 172-176, 338.

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