Reed & Barton Fluted Silverplate Bowls, Model 1851 — Matched Pair

A matched pair of dramatic silverplate bowls with deep radiating flutes and scalloped petal rims, raised on small pedestal feet. Reed & Barton, model 1851 — sculptural pieces of American silverwork that read more like stylized flowers than serving vessels.

The form does the work. Each flute catches light differently as you move around it, and the scalloped rims turn the bowls into something closer to sculpture than tableware. For lovers of mid-century design, the deep ribbing recalls Sigvard Bernadotte's iconic fluted hollowware for Georg Jensen — the same confidence in form, the same belief that a bowl could be a piece of sculpture.

Substantial in scale and presence — the kind of objects that anchor a sideboard, flank a centerpiece, or hold court on a dining table without anything in them. Pairs of mid-century silver bowls in matching form are uncommon, and two of these together carry more weight than either would alone.

One of the pair retains its original blue foil Reed & Barton label on the underside, an unusual survival that suggests this piece was lightly used and carefully kept across the decades. The other carries the same impressed maker's mark but has lost its label to time.

Reed & Barton was founded in 1824 in Taunton, Massachusetts, and spent generations refining the kind of hollowware that filled American dining rooms. These bowls are from their mid-20th century production — the period when traditional silver craft met modern sculptural confidence.

Part of a small Reed & Barton mid-century group currently in the shop.

Origin: Reed & Barton, Taunton, Massachusetts. Silverplate, mid-20th century. Model 1851, marked on the underside of both bowls. One retains the original blue foil label.

Condition: Very good vintage condition as a matched pair. Both bowls share the same form, scale, and scalloped rim, with no dents or repairs to the fluted bodies. Silverplate surfaces show light age-appropriate spotting and patina, particularly on the interior bases — honest surfaces that can be polished or left as-is. One bowl retains the original blue foil Reed & Barton label on the underside; the other has lost its label to time.

Dimensions:

Height: ~4"

Diameter: ~8"