Gorham

Gorham Manufacturing Company was initially founded in 1831 by Jabez Gorham (1792-1869) in Providence, Rhode Island. In 1837, William Price joined Gorham and his partner Henry Webster to form Gorham, Webster & Price. In 1850 Gorham’s son, John Gorham, and his cousin, Gorham Thurber, took over the company and changed the name to Gorham & Thurber. Under the two cousins’ leadership the company expanded their production of hollowware and flatware with the aid of new manufacturing technologies. In 1865, the business was incorporated as Gorham Manufacturing Company, at which time electroplating was also introduced.  By 1890 Gorham had built the world's largest bronze-casting foundry and by 1920 the company employed almost 2,000 workers. Its art foundry produced many sculptures for the great American sculptors of the day. More than 700 Gorham sculptures are listed in the Smithsonian inventory alone. Over the next century the company frequently brought in designers to keep Gorham’s products current and fashionable—from English silversmith Thomas Joseph Pairpoint’s (active 1868–77) High Victorian designs to the Danish designer Erik Magnussen’s (active 1925–29) radically modern, Cubist-inspired coffee service. During World War II Gorham’s production diminished as resources were redirected to the war effort. Production was resumed in the 1950s. The end came in 1967 when Textron purchased the Gorham Manufacturing Company. Gorham ceased operating as an independent business and the new owners started reducing the quality of Gorham's traditionally high-end products in an attempt to regain marketshare, an attempt that was ultimately unsuccessful. The former Gorham, now a division, was resold to Dansk International Designs in 1989, to the Brown-Foreman Corporation in 1991, and to Department 56 in 2005.