I’m switching gears for this weeks blog post as I was hesitant to get super meta about the habitus of the ring I’ve been writing about that always lives on my hand and how I am its habitus or something along those lines. It could be an interesting way to approach the topic but I think it’s best for all of us to examine something a bit more tangible.
The Towle Sterling Silver Full-Service Set. You can see that it’s a bit worse for wear as it’s been in the family for over 60 years!
Instead I’m choosing to focus on a sterling silverware set that is often tucked away in my family home’s red dining room. This is a “full service” set that contains utensils (forks, knives, and spoons) for 12 people as well as serving utensils, such as large spoons for dishes, a meat fork and knife, and a small ladle for sauces and gravies, among other things that somehow get used though I never really know what they’re used for until they’re in use! I didn’t realize how special this silverware set was until I started doing some research on the company, Towle Sterling and saw the prices for a set such as this one. Towle Silversmith was founded in 1690 in Massachusetts and has since expanded to become “the proud guardians of America’s silver heritage”, according to their About Us section online.
On the website you can browse sets by their style of the hand for the silverware and I selected the one that looks the most similar to the style we own and found out that a 12 piece, full service set costs over $11,000! I was absolutely floored. Now, I have no idea how much our set would be worth now and I had a tough time figuring out the price of sterling silverware like this from 1952. That was the year my grandmother (who gave me the claddagh ring on my 13th birthday), got married to my late grandfather, William Rooney. Colleen Ryan, or Nan as my sisters and I call her, was gifted the set of sterling silver as a very generous wedding gift, possibly from my great aunt Greta who my dad tells me was very wealthy at the time. Nan passed this down to my mother and father when they got married in 1984 and it’s been a part of my immediate family since.
The China Cabinet, truly filled to the brim!
I’m not sure if the sterling silver set is the reason why we somehow got the role of Christmas dinner hosts over the years but it certainly helps that we have all that fancy utensils! The brown wooden box that houses all the individual pieces only comes out of hiding three times a year. It travels with us to my uncle Paul’s house for Thanksgiving dinner and is used in our own home for Christmas and Easter. These holidays apparently call for the good stuff, so out comes the sterling silver along with the china and the crystal glassware. Objects such as these are a part of a tradition–the occasions that they resurface for seem to require their usage or else would it really be Christmas dinner without the sterling silver?
I realize I’ve rambled on a bit about the items and not about their place in a habitus. But that’s what struck me about this sterling silver set. That I almost always forget about the chest that contains the shiny objects until they are called upon when a year has gone by and its time for them to fulfill their dutiful service. It’s a bit sad really–the chest gets filled with the silverware once its been cleaned and polished after use and is closed up and put under our large china cabinet that rests in our dining room. The china cabinet itself is an antique that houses both expensive, delicate items as well as little knickknacks and unique objects my sisters and I have made over the years. The chest doesn’t even have a place within the cherished china cabinet as it doesn’t fit amongst all the other objects that have already been placed within.
Family and friends at Christmas Dinner, 2015
Under that cabinet that is nearly filled to the brim is the silverware chest that remains their inconspicuous, nearly hidden from sight. I find its existence is our dining room quite humble when I think about it now. Something worth so much and cherished so much lives such a modest life 362 days of the year. It’s nice though, that it’s used for such joyous occasions, when everyone is around the table, eating and drinking and engaging in mirth and merriment. But that too comes to an end and we resume our everyday lives and the wooden chest filled with the sterling silverware is placed gently on the floor and slid under the cabinet, where it quietly rests, destined for a fine layer of dusts until it is to be retrieved again and revealed in all its glory.
The Materials of History, Thought, and Art 
Megannnnn…I am so glad I got to read about this silverware set and the family celebrations it is used at, as it inspired fond memories of my own family gatherings! You are so right to call upon the irony of an object such as this. For such a remarkable family heirloom thats worth so much money, the silverware is only appreciated for a handful of days throughout the year. Its almost as if the set’s specific significance at holiday meals emerges from the fact that it is kept hidden for the majority of the year. I guess what I’m trying to say is that your post really investigates the ways in which owners ascribe value to their objects. For you and your family, it seems as if most of the value in this object is its ability to bring people together; the silverware chest is important because it continues to make memories, not because of its monetary value (even though it is indeed worth quite a lump sum!) I think this is an important idea to take note of, and I thank you for writing about it so eloquently.
Megan, you describe so effortlessly the way that the silverware is used in your family, and I was especially intrigued by the placement of the chest when the silverware is not in use. The fact that it’s underneath a china cabinet made me think of it as two separate things – the chest as a habitus for the silverware and the china cabinet as a habitus for the chest. I am also curious about its habitus when it is in use: travelling between your home and your uncle’s home – how does its habitus change? Is the silverware placed with different china sets at your uncle’s home, or do you bring your set? Is it mixed with other serving utensils, or strictly with the pieces already in the chest? It seems as if the chest and its contents have a great many habiti (?) and that they’re quite versatile despite the elegant nature.