William Lawrence deMatteo (12 October 1923–14 May 1988), silversmith and master craftsman, was born in New York City and was the son of Elizabeth Rommelman deMatteo and William Gaitano deMatteo, an accomplished silversmith who immigrated to the United States from Acciaroli, Salerno, Italy, with his family when he was a boy. William Lawrence deMatteo grew up in suburban Bergenfield, New Jersey, and attended schools in nearby Tenafly, all the while observing and absorbing his father's skillful work. DeMatteo began studying sculpture and fine arts at Columbia University in 1941, but after the United States entered World War II he joined the navy in November 1942 and served in the Pacific theater as a torpedo bomber pilot. On 14 November 1946, in Asbury Park, he married Jayne Walpole, a painter who later cofounded an art gallery. They had three daughters and one son. DeMatteo resumed his apprenticeship with his father and may have continued his studies at Columbia before being recalled to active duty with the navy during the Korean War. He was discharged in 1953.
Bill deMatteo, as he was usually known, visited the restored capital of colonial Virginia while he was still in the service and asked to see the silversmith's shop. Told that Colonial Williamsburg had none, he saw an opportunity for himself. Soon after deMatteo left the navy, he returned to Williamsburg and in July 1953 joined the staff as a silversmith. He created the entire silversmith program and was responsible for the James Geddy Silversmith's Shop, where he trained shopkeepers in interpreting craftsmanship to visitors, instructed and supervised apprentices in all kinds of metalworking, and handcrafted reproductions of eighteenth-century silver items for sale in the shop. DeMatteo also revived colonial silversmith James Craig's Williamsburg shop, "At the Sign of the Golden Ball." In January 1963 deMatteo was promoted to Staff Master Craftsman and Master Silversmith.
In accord with Colonial Williamsburg's motto—that the future may learn from the past—deMatteo spent much of his time in educational and advertising efforts. Working from a research report that Colonial Williamsburg staff member Thomas K. Bullock had prepared, in 1956 deMatteo published The Silversmith in Eighteenth-Century Williamsburg–An Account of his Life & Times, & of his Craft, a short history of silversmithing and techniques used in colonial days. DeMatteo also provided much of the information for a 1971 video program, Silversmith of Williamsburg, and the accompanying manual. In the film he demonstrated every stage of making an eighteenth-century silver coffeepot, beginning with receiving silver coins or scraps to be melted, discussing details of the commission with a customer, methods and design, and shaping the piece with his hammer and burnishing the completed coffeepot. In 1971 and 1972, deMatteo studied design, silversmithing, and methods at Sir John Cass Department of Art of the City London Polytechnic, and with professional London silversmiths; in 1975 he became the first American craftsman to be elected an honorary foreign associate of the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths, in London.
As his skill became apparent to staff and visitors, deMatteo received many requests to design and craft commemorative gifts. A town-crier's bell that he made for Colonial Williamsburg to present to Sir Winston Churchill in 1955 appeared in a picture of Churchill on the cover of Life magazine the following year. DeMatteo designed presentation pieces for the White House Correspondents' Association annual presentations to Presidents John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard M. Nixon, Gerald R. Ford, and Jimmy Carter. He designed numerous handcrafted gifts for visiting presidents, queens, kings, and prime ministers, and the Department of State commissioned deMatteo to craft silver trays for presentation to Egyptian president Anwar Sadat and Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin at the Camp David Accords in 1978.
For a commission from the American Telephone and Telegraph Company in 1976 in recognition of the centennial of Alexander Graham Bell's invention of the telephone, deMatteo produced an abstract silver piece, a departure from his colonial-style masterpieces, inscribed with Bell's first words transmitted over his telephone. Despite his finesse, he was a modest man who insisted that he was a craftsman, not an artist. DeMatteo was content to make beautiful utilitarian objects that he believed did not rise to the level of imagination and execution required of an artist. His devotion to excellence was acknowledged by the American Institute of Architects, which in 1960 gave him its craftsmanship medal for high achievement in industrial arts.
After twenty-six years with Colonial Williamsburg, in 1979 deMatteo left and moved with his family to Alexandria. Together with his son, Chip deMatteo, and Philip Thorp, a colleague at Colonial Williamsburg, he opened Hand & Hammer Silversmiths. DeMatteo continued to explore and extend his range beyond eighteenth-century forms. He was an affable man, noted for his disarming smile. He was an intense perfectionist who was deaf to his surroundings while sitting at his bench shaping precious metals with his hammer. He was also a resourceful artisan who was known to make his own hammers when he failed to find suitable ones in the market. DeMatteo once remarked that "being a silversmith is just a delightful, lovely way to go through life" and that while he was not fully satisfied with his silver work he was "very satisfied with the life I lead." William Lawrence deMatteo died of leukemia at an Alexandria hospital on 14 May 1988. His son, who continued to work at the Hand & Hammer Silversmiths, preserved his ashes.
Sources Consulted:
Birth date in Social Security application, Social Security Administration, Office of Earnings Operations, Baltimore, Md.; unpublished brief biography (Mar. 1973), numerous press releases (1964–1977), and "At the Sign of the Golden Ball" announcement, ca. 1963 (first quotation), all Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, Williamsburg, Va.; feature articles in Richmond Times-Dispatch, 2 Aug. 1957, and Wall Street Journal, 13 July 1973 (second quotation); family history information and marriage date confirmed by son, Chip deMatteo (2011, 2015); Philadelphia Inquirer, 7 Feb. 1960; Colonial Williamsburg News, 31 July 1979; obituaries in Newport News Daily Press, 15 May 1988 (incorrect age at death); Washington Post, 16 May 1988 (incorrect age at death); Richmond Times-Dispatch (incorrect age at death) and Richmond News Leader, both 17 May 1988, and obituary and editorial tribute in Williamsburg Virginia Gazette, 18 May 1988.
Image courtesy of Chip deMatteo.
Written for the Dictionary of Virginia Biography by Lucy Southall Colebaugh.
How to cite this page:
Lucy Southall Colebaugh,"William Lawrence deMatteo (1923–1988)," Dictionary of Virginia Biography, Library of Virginia (1998– ), published 2015 (http://www.lva.virginia.gov/public/dvb/bio.asp?b=deMatteo_William_Lawrence, accessed [today's date]).
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