This simple, elegant bowl, engraved with a date of April 3, 1918, was a birthday gift to Helen Stevens Coolidge from her husband, John, who probably purchased it from the Gebelein Shop near their Boston residence. Gebelein inverted the Coolidge’s monogram from the customary colonial format, in which the surname initial appears above those of the husband and wife. The vessel’s scalloped edge further defines the updated approach to this traditional form, which would have been well suited to the couple’s Colonial Revival-style home in North Andover, Massachusetts.

This text has been adapted from "Silver of the Americas, 1600-2000," edited by Jeannine Falino and Gerald W.R. Ward, published in 2008 by the MFA. Complete references can be found in that publication.

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