Text of report for the 4699 Waiter by Samuel Hough, derived from Gorham's Costing Records in the Gorham Archives:
The Gorham (4699) Waiter
The (4699) Waiter, made as a "sample" for the Columbian World's Fair in Chicago, was completed 15 April 1893. The Waiter is
very large— 26 inches oblong and weighing 218 troy ounces two pennyweight of sterling silver, valued at $261.72. It may have been designed by William
Christmas Codman, who was employed by Gorham in November 1891 and who would have been assigned to top-priority projects such as the Columbian Exposition.
The maker of the waiter was a silversmith who required 125 hours at a labor cost of $43.75 to accomplish it. I would expect that the one
and a half hours turning time, which cost $0.45, was performed after the silversmith's work was completed.
The waiter was then chased for 620 hours — over ten sixty-hour weeks. This work was obviously performed by a highly skilled
craftsman. He might have been David Wilmot (1853-1940), who had become one of Gorham's leading chasers in the early 1890s, or the chasing could have been the
work of the amazing Scot Robert Bain (1866-1946). Bain had been hired 12 December 1892, which would barely have given him time to complete this by April 15th.
Whoever did the work was clearly a master.
After the chasing was completed the waiter was polished: stoning took three and a half hours at $0.70; five hours of bobbing cost $1.25;
and four hours (including an hour for marking) added $1.40 to the cost.
Ignoring chasing for the moment, the total for silver and labor came to $309.27. With 20%, $61.25, added for overhead and 30%, $92.78, for
profit the sum came to $463.90.
Management took a look at what had been wrought and rounded the sum to $575, adding $625 for the chasing to bring
their factory price for this hefty masterpiece to $1200.00.
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