The Gorham Company's Martelé line of silver: an analysis of the consumer and commercial strategy of the company
Date
1998
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Publisher
University of Delaware
Abstract
In the year 1900, the Gorham Manufacturing Company became the premier manufacturer of fine metal products in both America and Europe at the Paris Exposition of 1900. Although up to this point Gorham’s leadership in silver manufacture had come about through its innovation and skill with machinery, the firm entered a whole new sphere of production when it introduced a line at the Exposition that appeared to contradict all that had made it a success— the Martelé line of hand-crafted wares. ☐ Gorham wanted Martelé to catapult into the international arena and make the company the number one producer of both art and commercial silver products in the world. Gorham believed that there was something special about the design and the materials used in the crafting of this art line of silver products that would enable the company to achieve its goal. A thorough examination of design, substance, and the intentions of the company as they relate to the fabrication of the Martelé line and how they were all effected by the consumer culture of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century is the subject of this narrative. ☐ An investigation of the genesis of the Martelé line will explore the commercial strategy of Gorham under Edward Holbrook and his chief designer William Codman, how the product was made available to the public by both the company and its retailers, and attempt to reach some conclusions regarding why Martelé had such a brief period of popularity. This narrative explores the effect of World Exhibitions, print advertising, new methods of display in luxury department stores, the effect of economic and consumer changes upon Gorham and, the introduction and marketing of its premier line. ☐ I use the Martelé line as a consumer “case study” of early twentieth-century marketing strategies for luxury products. Through an evaluation of company records, an examination of Martelé products and those offered by the company’s competitors, and an interpretation of Gorham’s marketing plans through the lens of early twentieth-century consumer theory, this narrative will attempt to determine how Gorham was successful and how it failed in its endeavor to enter the competitive world of high-end luxury products.