This selection from a 218-piece “Fourteenth Century” silver service was produced by the San Francisco silver and jewelry company Shreve & Company. Founded in 1852, the firm's growth was fueled by the extraordinary wealth derived from California's gold mines and Nevada's silver mines. The firm's rise also coincided with the Victorian era's love of lavish dining, as well as elaborate silver services that conveyed social status and sophistication.The French Gothic elements in the aptly named “Fourteenth Century” pattern reveal the significant influence of medieval art on the Arts and Crafts movement. Remarkably, each type of utensil in this silver servicehad twelve related yet different profiles, as in the ice cream forks displayed here. This design concept may have proved too costly, as it was replaced in the 1912-13 Shreve & Company catalogue by a uniform “Fourteenth Century II” pattern.