Murray Vandiver Silver Service:
On April 23, 1900, Murray Vandiver was presented with this silver service in honor of his election as state treasurer and retirement as party chairman of the Maryland Democratic party.
A lifelong Democrat, Vandiver was secretary and treasurer of the Democratic State Executive Committee and the Democratic State Central Committee from 1887-1892, and chairman, Democratic State Central Committee from 1897-1899. Vandiver served in the Maryland House of Delegates in 1876, 1878, 1880, and 1892. President Grover Cleveland appointed Vandiver Collector of Internal Revenue for Maryland, the District of Columbia, Delaware, and Virginia's Eastern Shore; he served from 1893 to 1897. He held the office of Treasurer of Maryland from 1900 until 1916.
This silver service was commissioned by the Maryland Democratic Party in 1899 and secured from Samuel Kirk & Son Co. of Baltimore (1815-1979). The entire service consisted of 20 pieces of hollowware and serving pieces for eighteen, all in Kirk’s famous floral repoussé pattern. Repoussé is a technique in which a metal is shaped by hammering from the reverse side to create a design in low relief. The repoussé techniques date back to the Bronze Age, however, the technique had fallen out of fashion in the Colonial period. Samuel Kirk’s revival of the repoussé method in the mid-nineteenth century was very innovative and set the style for fine silver all over the country. The ceremony for Vandiver and the silver service was widely publicized in the local Baltimore newspapers.
Several pieces of the service are engraved with Vandiver’s monogram and the inscription:
Presented to Murray Vandiver as a testimonial of confidence and gratitude and in public acknowledgement of his untiring and successful work as chairman of the Democratic State Central Committee in reorganizing the Democratic Party and leading it to victory November 7th, 1899