Whiting Antique Sterling Silver Lily Pad Creamer & Sugar, NYC, NY, c. 1875

This rare lily-form set is unusual and beautiful and would have been used to serve cream and sugar for coffee, tea, or dessert. Dessert sets were  common at this period, and were at the center of the dessert course.

The creamer has a lily-pad base with tendrils rising and suspending the body. Of typical form, the body with attached loop handle has a body of overlapping lily petals. The sugar bowl has a four-pad base with tendrils rising to suspend the bowl and form the handles. The bowl is created as a blossoming waterlily and is textured to give it a lovely sparkle. Forms such as these inspired by nature are wonderful examples of aesthetic movement designs, people's imaginations and skilled silversmiths.

This rare antique silver set is marked with Whiting's trademark and 'STERLING/ 310.' The sugar bowl measures 6 inches across the handles by 3.75 inches high, and the creamer is 4.25 across the handles by just shy of 4.5 inches tall. They weigh a combined 11.85 troy ounces and are in excellent antique condition.