Magnificent, Marvelous Martelé - University of Louisiana at Lafayette

UL LAFAYETTE
FOUNDATION
Magnificent, Marvelous Martelé
Museum offers dazzling exhibit of handcrafted silver
THE OPENING OF AN EXHIBIT
of Martelé silver at the Paul
and Lulu Hilliard University
Art Museum was delayed due to
Hurricane Katrina.
In a way, it was perfect timing.
The later start means the exhibition
will run through Dec. 31.
Jardiniére, 1906, by chaser
Robert Bain, Jolie and Robert
Shelton Collection
“The holiday season is a wonderful
time to see this incredible
art,” said Mark Tullos, deputy
director of the museum. “Part of
the sentiment surrounding the holidays
involves our attraction to the
beautiful, the exquisite. We see
this in holiday decorations and in
some of the ways that we present
gifts to one another.
46 LA LOUISIANE | FALL 2005
PHILIP GOULD
A table set for eight guests shows how some Martelé silver items were used.
PHILIP GOULD

The University Art
Museum exhibition is
composed of more than
300 pieces, including
some that have never
been displayed before.
“There’s an elegance in the design of
this handcrafted silver that seems heightened
this time of year.”
Martelé was an exclusive line of handtooled
silver produced from the 1880s to
the 1930s for Gorham Silver Company.
Magnificent, Marvelous Martelé: American
Art Nouveau Silver, The Jolie and Robert
Shelton Collection is the largest and most
comprehensive private collection of Martelé
silver in the world.
The University Art Museum
exhibition is composed of more than 300
pieces, including some that have never
been displayed before. The collection
represents nearly every form produced in
Vase, 1902, by chaser William Gray,
Collection New Orleans Museum of Art,
Jolie and Robert Shelton Collection
the Martelé line, including tea and coffee
services, punchbowls, fish sets, candelabra,
loving cups, tankards, vases, inkstands,
PHILIP GOULD
COLLECTORS SHARE THEIR TREASURES
Jolie and Robert Shelton have amassed the largest private collection of Martelé silver.
The Martelé silver exhibit at
University Art Museum represents
the decade long efforts of
Lafayette art collectors Jolie and Robert
Shelton.
Jolie Shelton spotted a handsome
Martelé water pitcher at a Morton M.
Goldberg auction in New Orleans in 1995.
She entered the bidding. Robert Shelton
still remembers what she told him then: “I
don’t know what it is, but it’s beautiful.”
The couple bought the pitcher and
later learned that it was part of Gorham
Manufacturing Company’s Martelé line.
They soon identified the important scholars
and collectors of Martelé, started
studying the distinctive artwork and
began to amass their own collection.
Mark Tullos, deputy director of the
Paul and Lulu Hilliard University Art
Museum, said the Sheltons exemplify the
importance of the private collector to
museums and society.
“A number of objects in the
collection are part of the New Orleans
Museum of Art collection because Robert
and Jolie donated them. The Sheltons
have also made significant contributions
to University Art Museum’s collections,
as well as other public and private
museums,” he said.
“All too often, museums don’t have
the funds to secure collections. So they
rely heavily on collectors such as the
Sheltons, who have the desire and means
to assemble collections. Thanks to their
time and effort, the public gets to enjoy
artwork that the museum may not otherwise
have been able to offer.”
Julie Bolton Falgout, executive director
of the UL Lafayette Foundation, said
the Sheltons have been generous, longtime
supporters of the university and,
especially, the school’s art program.
“They have donated numerous
works of art, many of them Rodrigue
originals, to our permanent art collection.
We are truly grateful to Jolie and Robert
Shelton for their generosity to our university,”
she said.
“When the Martelé silver exhibit was
being planned for the Paul and Lulu
Hilliard University Art Museum, the Sheltons
decided to appropriately dedicate it
to their longtime friends Dick and Chantal
Dowty. The Dowtys also have a long history
of supporting the university and
were lead donors for the construction of
the Foundation building on East St. Mary
Boulevard in 2000.” ■
LA LOUISIANE | FALL 2005 47
PHILIP GOULD

sauceboats and centerpieces.
A highlight of the exhibition
is a 12-foot dining room
table with a full service setting
for eight. “The table display will
provide museum visitors with a
sense of how these objects were
used,” said John Keefe, curator
of Decorative Arts at the New
Orleans Museum of Art and
organizer of the exhibition.
Another object featured in
Magnificent, Marvelous Martelé
is a massive 32-inch centerpiece,
part of a service commissioned
by millionaire oilman
Harry Ford Sinclair. It took over
500 craftsman hours to create.
It seems to be one of
Robert Shelton’s favorite pieces.
“You can bathe four babies in
it,” he noted, adding that it
weighs 35 pounds. He is a
walking encyclopedia of
Martelé silver information
whose fascination with the artwork
is contagious.
The Gorham firm was
founded in 1831 by Jabez
Gorham, who at the time was a
small provincial jewelry maker. It
would become a mammoth and
influential manufacturer of a
wide variety of silver wares.
Love Cup: 8982, Circa 1897, but completed in
1898, Chaser: Unrecorded, The Jolie and Robert
Shelton Collection
48 LA LOUISIANE | FALL 2005
Robert Shelton attends to details before the exhibition opens.
By 1900, Gorham Manufacturing
was the largest silver manufacturer in
the world and occupied a sprawling
state-of-the-art factory in Providence,
R.I. Throughout its rapid growth and
expansion, the company distinguished
itself by successfully combining the latest
technological advances with exemplary
design.
Martelé, named from the French
verb “to hammer,” was a departure
from Gorham’s machine-made commercial
flatware and hollowware.
Each piece was first created by a
silversmith, then decorated by a chaser.
Because it was handcrafted, Martelé
was expensive. So, it was made in small
quantities, usually as individual pieces
or small sets. No pieces were duplicated;
each is unique.
Buyers were the wealthy of the day.
A single pitcher may have cost $1,500,
three times the cost of a house at the
time, according to Robert Shelton.
It’s estimated that 7,000
to 8,000 pieces were made.
Many were melted for their
silver whenever the price for
silver soared. Only about
1,700 to 1,800 exist today.
University Art Museum’s
5,000-square-foot gallery has
been divided into seven galleries
representing different
periods in the Martelé line’s
evolution and development.
Tullos noted that visiting
the Martelé exhibit can
be relaxing during the busy
holidays.
“When you visit a museum
and spend time with
great works of art, you tend
to leave behind, for just a
few moments, all the things
that may be burdening you.
“Awesome creations like
this Martelé silver collection
can be inspiring and lift you
above whatever you may be
struggling with in your personal
life. It’s an escape, in a
way, an escape to a different
time in history, when things
were simpler.
“You really have to slow
down in this exhibition, too.
It’s not something you can
give a cursory glance and
fully appreciate. The Martelé silver will
draw you in.” ■
PHILIP GOULD
Magnificent, Marvelous Martelé:
American Art Nouveau Silver, The
Jolie and Robert Shelton Collection
runs through Dec. 31.
An innovative MP3 audio tour
of the silver exhibition was developed
by the UL Lafayette College of
the Arts. It is available for download
at http://arts.louisiana.edu
University Art Museum is open
Tuesday through Saturday from 10
a.m. to 5 p.m and on Sunday from
1-5 p.m. It’s closed on Monday. For
general museum information,
phone (337) 482-2ART.
■ www.louisiana.edu/uam