A Unique Slant of Light: The Bicentennial History of Art in Louisiana - (Page 388)

warmer made for the Buckner family of East Carroll Parish. their workshop. The Historic New Orleans Collection owns a Distinguished by the cast silver boy holding a hoop handle, this pair of cups and saucers used to serve Roman punch, which is a is the only example of a silver egg boiler made south of Baltimore. water-ice made with lemon juice, sugar, beaten egg whites and It bears both the “K and H” mark and that of “HYDE AND rum. This drink must have enjoyed some vogue as the Louisiana State Museum owns a set of eight of the cups and saucers and GOODRICH” in a crescent over “MANUFACTURERS” the LSU Museum of Art owns one pre-Civil War example by within a reverse arc “NEW ORLEANS, LA.” Little is known about Küchler. His place and date of birth and death have Adolphe Himmel and a post-war one in the medallion pattern eluded. In New Orleans, besides the early partnership with made by Himmel for Hyde and Goodrich’s successors A.B. Himmel, Küchler enjoyed a longer one with Bernard Terfloth Griswold and Co. The other Gregor and Wilson piece that is (1858-1866) and final one was begun in 1870 with Augustus uncommon is a butter cooler. This rococo revival piece has a William Jansen. What is evident is that he was talented when circular liner for the churned butter to rest upon above chipped ice. he worked alone. It is difficult for most of us to recall that the modern nation One of the most impressive pieces of silver produced for state of Germany is in the scheme of history a new thing—only Hyde and Goodrich at the factory directed by Adolphe Himmel is a hot water kettle-on-stand, which was in all probability dating to the 1860s. Chancellor Otto von Bismarck of Prussia the central feature of an ornate coffee and tea service. The brought the hundreds for German principalities, electorships, domed lid of the pear-shaped body is crowned with a dukedoms and so forth, under Prussian rule. This unification whimsical squirrel finial. The lamp or burner is had been preceded in 1848 by economic problems and screened with foliate and floral swags, while resistance to forced military service throughout the Germanic states. This led to massive immigrations the stand is raised on cabriole legs to other countries, especially the United terminating in leaf-shaped feet reminiscent of eighteenth-century examples. States. New Orleans as a large port city About ten footed water pitchers received ample numbers of these with pear-shaped bodies made in immigrants who fit into this rather the Hyde and Goodrich factory cosmopolitan city which possessed are known. Each one of these pitchers a European flair. These Germans were show Himmel’s imagination in regard either Roman Catholic or Lutheran, to details that make all of them different. were highly musical and had an interesting The idea for the general shape probably cuisine—all of which added to the cultural originated in England, but certainly life of the city. Mainly they were hardworking craftsmen and businessmen. Tiffany, Young and Ellis made some, Adding to the cabinetmakers, decorative as did Lincoln and Foss of Boston. Himmel assuredly could have seen painters, builders and printers were an this pattern on one of his trips to outstanding group of well-trained New York City. The pitcher made for German silversmiths. the Badgett family is an outstanding As Adolphe Himmel (1825/6-1877) example of the form. The commanding ran the highly productive silver EDWARD A. TYLER shell-shaped spout with foliate supports manufacturing at the corner of Bienville (b. 1815, Boston, Massachusetts – d. 1879, New Orleans, Louisiana) Tureen-on-Stand, ca. 1856-1861 is a wonderful foil for the sensuous and Derbigny Streets for Hyde Goodrich, Coin silver handle with cast lotus flowers and leaves. it is his name that leaps to the forefront of Private collection The body itself is embellished with repoussé grape German New Orleanians. While family tradition records his birthplace as Zweibrücken, Bavaria, his real clusters and leaves. The whole is raised on a mill-bordered foot composed of double curules typical of New Orleans design. surname is not known. For reasons clouded doubtlessly by the The reserve is engraved in script with the name “Badgett”. political turmoil of 1848, Himmel changed his name as he left The cake basket is perhaps a pattern unique to New Orleans his homeland to avoid detection. and to the hand of designer Adolphe Himmel. Five are currently It is in the 1852 New Orleans city directories that Himmel’s known, each having a lobed boat-shaped bowl raised on a name first appears in partnership with Christoph Christian conforming base with a milled beaded border. Each one possesses Küchler, obviously a fellow countryman. This partnership of at most a year and a half produced articles bearing only the two an interesting swing handle wherein four rope or cable-like strands of intertwined silver form the handle. smiths’ marks and others that bore the marks of the retailer, One of Himmel’s more fanciful creations for Hyde and Hyde and Goodrich. Certainly, the outstanding surviving piece Goodrich was a butter cooler sold to medical doctor, planter coming from that partnership is the rococo revival egg boiler or 388 NEW ORLEANS-MADE SILVERWARE OF THE EIGHTEENTH AND NINETEENTH CENTURIES 

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A Unique Slant of Light: The Bicentennial History of Art in Louisiana

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