Baltimore Seven-Piece Sterling Silver Presentation Coffee and Tea Set, dated 1941, including a coffeepot, teapot, kettle-on-stand, covered sugar bowl, cream jug, waste bowl and tray, the hollowware each with a pear-shaped body and domed foot decorated with repousse flowers in the traditional Baltimore manner, the collars plain, with acanthus-crested handles and domed lids with floriform finials, h. 5-1/4" to 16", the oval tray en suite with a "quilted" ground centering a cartouche with engraved inscription "Presented to / Colonel William Murtha Wilder / Commanding 325th Regiment U.S. Infantry / 1921 to 1941 / by its Officers, May 15, 1941" surrounding the regimental arms, l. 28-3/4", w. 17-3/4", 345.95 total t. oz. Col. William Murtha Wilder (1877-1976) served in the U.S. Army, either in active duty or in the National Guard and Army Reserve, for fifty years, from 1897 to 1947. As noted in the inscription on this lot, he was commander of the 325th Infantry from its reconstitution in 1921 (having been demobilized in 1919) until May 1941. The regiment was put into active service less than a year later, by which time Wilder was serving as Liaison Officer for the Labor Office of the Department of Agriculture, aiding in the all-important task of feeding a wartime army scattered across the globe. After his retirement he became known as a keen genealogist and author of three editions of Wilder Families in the Southeastern United States. He died on June 18, 1976 and is buried in Oakview Cemetery in his native Albany, Georgia.

Overall Condition: Good. Three small dents on the underside of the tray with a corresponding fingerprint-sized "dimple" in the quilted ground. The upper tip of both pot spouts are slightly dented, the insulating joints are slightly loose from shrinkage but are fully intact and sound. Both pots and the kettle and the tray rim lack the oxidation present in the recesses lacking on the other pieces, and a spotty, dulled finish on the kettle and coffeepot suggests that these pieces have been over-zealously cleaned. Still, it is a very good set with no significant condition issues. Each piece marked (on the underside) "Sterling / Balto. Floral / Hand Chased".