United States Silver, Caviar Server

Product Description

Perhaps no steamship line in the 1950s was making a bigger deal out of caviar service than the United States Lines.  Silver service table side was and still is a requirement in my mind for caviar.  You have certainly paid enough for the “big guns” of the head waiter or MaÎtre d’ to be pulled out with all the trimmings for table side service.  All the major lines offered some version of the head waiter rolling up a trolly and making quite a too-do out of the salty and sought after fish eggs.  But the service provided in first class on the ss United States was crowned by this beautiful large silver urn on a pedestal making the caviar service table side an even bigger deal and easily recognizable from any portion of the dining room.

I wonder how many of these there were on board?  This is a common thought in my head when describing the rarer and larger items of silver from the Big U.  Certainly caviar was only served in the private dining room and the first-class dining room.  In other classes you simply hadn’t paid for it.  So it stands to reason, given how much they loved the ship, that the Duke and Duchess of Windsor enjoyed beluga right out of this very urn.  Wallace was so “extra” enjoying all types of luxuries and the former King and his wife traveled so often on the ship we don’t need proof to be nearly certain.

Comes to us directly from the Big Ship auction in 1984.  Dated of course to 1952 and made by International Silver.  Also one of the very few to exist with its original glass inserts.  Choice!