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Maine Antique Digest, April 2017 31-E
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AUCTION -
31-E
This silver salver by Joseph Richardson Sr. of Philadelphia,
circa 1760, has a shell-and-scroll rim above the shaped
and partly fluted border; the center is engraved with the
contemporary interlaced cipher “FRR,” and it is raised
on three pad feet and marked twice on the base “IR”
in
a rectangle. The 8" diameter salver sold on the phone
for $30,000 (est. $30,000/50,000). The initials are those
of Francis and Rebecca (Warner) Rawle, who married
in 1756. According to the catalog, in September 1760
Francis Rawle purchased 31 acres of land overlooking the
Schuylkill, on which the family’s home, Laurel Hill, was
built. It is unlikely that the construction of Laurel Hill was
completed at the time of Francis’s untimely death. On June
7, 1761, Francis accidentally shot and killed himself while
hunting. Laurel Hill is now in Fairmount Park. The salver
was once part of the Philip H. Hammerslough collection.
This silver bowl by Samuel Casey of South Kingston,
Rhode Island, circa 1760, is circular with a flaring
rim and raised on a molded spreading foot. Its base is
engraved with contemporary initials “A*M” and marked
“S:CASEY” in a rectangle. The 5¾" diameter bowl
sold for $23,750 (est. $12,000/18,000) to a collector in
the salesroom. At Sotheby Parke Bernet in June 1984 it
had sold for $15,400 (est. $10,000/ $15,000). According
to the catalog, Samuel Casey was born in Newport,
Rhode Island, in 1723 or 1724 and became a freeman
in Exeter, Rhode Island; he moved by 1750 to Little
Rest (now South Kingston), where he is described as a
silversmith and merchant. In September 1764 his house
and shop were destroyed by a fire, which spread from the
forge. Frequently in debt after this disaster, in 1770 he
was imprisoned for counterfeiting coins and sentenced to
death by hanging. A mob with blackened faces attacked
the jail and freed the prisoners. Casey went into hiding
but was eventually pardoned in September 1770 by the
appeal of his wife. Casey was the maker of the silver
mounts on the Nathaniel Appleton secretary-bookcase,
attributed to Job Townsend of Rhode Island, which
sold at Sotheby’s in New York on January 17, 1999, for
$8,252,500. According to the catalog, that is the only
known example of silver mounts on Colonial North
American furniture.
This 13¼" tall silver coffeepot by Joseph and
Nathaniel Richardson of Philadelphia, circa
1777, has a double-bellied pear form with fluted
and gadrooned borders, fluted and leaf-capped
spout, and gadrooned urn finial and is engraved
on one side with a contemporary foliate script
monogram “WSR.” It is marked twice on base “I
• NR” conjoined in a rectangle and sold for
$56,250 (est. $30,000/50,000) to dealer Deanne
Levison for a client, underbid by dealer Jonathan
Trace. It was made for William and Sarah
(Saunders) Redwood and descended in the family
of daughter Sarah Redwood, who married Miers
Fisher. It had sold at Sotheby’s in January 2000
for $107,000 (est. $50,000/70,000). According to
the catalog, William Redwood was the half-
brother of Abraham Redwood, who founded the
Redwood Library in Newport, Rhode Island.
William Redwood, born in Newport, worked
there and in Antigua before going to Philadelphia
in 1787 to work as a merchant; he died in 1815.
The Richardsons made two similar double-bellied
coffeepots for Philadelphia couples in 1781 and
1786. Another almost identical coffeepot sold
at Sotheby’s in January 2006 for $78,000 (est.
$60,000/80,000).
This 6¼" tall, 22 oz. 4 dwt. silver tankard
by John Hull and Robert Sanderson
of Boston, circa 1665, has a tapered
cylindrical form with a molded base band.
The flat domed cover with incised border
and shaped peak was added by J.
Herbert Gebelein, a 20th-century Boston
silversmith. The hinge is decorated with
wriggle work and a shaped mount; the
scroll handle is engraved with early initials
“B*L,” and the front is engraved with a
later inscription, “Hannah S. Perkins to
Elizabeth Child.” It is marked on the base
“RS”
and “IH” (Kane mark B). It sold for
$27,500 (est. $10,000/15,000). At Sotheby’s
on January 31, 1986, it had sold for
$13,750—bought by Seymour Schwartz,
who told his wife she would never be able
to afford a Hull and Sanderson tankard
with its original cover.
This 9½" long silver teapot by Jacob Hurd of Boston, circa
1740, is of apple form and finely engraved at the shoulder
with a band of interlaced strapwork with satyr masks and
shells at intervals; one side is engraved with a contemporary
cipher “CJM” within a baroque cartouche; it has a wood and
silver baluster finial and a partly fluted scroll spout with baluster
drop below. The base is engraved with contemporary block
initials “C/I*M” and marked underneath “IHURD” in shaped
punch and “HURD” in a rectangle. It sold on the phone for
$20,000 (est. $20,000/30,000). At Sotheby’s in June 1980, it
had sold for $13,200 (est. $10,000/15,000). The catalog states:
“According to Patricia Kane, this teapot was commissioned
by John and Mary Channing. Awealthy Newport merchant,
Channing was a founding member of the Redwood Library
and sat with his wife for portraits by Robert Feke about 1747
(Museum of Fine Arts, Boston). The same monogram appears on
a silver porringer by Hurd, illus. Hollis French,
Jacob Hurd and
his Sons, Silversmiths,
pl. XVI.”
This pair of circa 1733 silver beakers by Jacob Hurd of Boston
was made for the Congregational Church, South Byfield,
Massachusetts, at the bequest of Nathaniel Byfield. Each is
cylindrical with a flaring rim on a molded foot ring and engraved
on one side with a coat of arms surrounded by scrolling foliage.
Each is marked near the rim “IHurd” in a cartouche and is 4¾"
tall. The pair sold for $32,500 (est. $30,000/50,000) to dealer
Jonathan Trace of Portsmouth, New Hampshire. They had
sold at Christie’s in New York in June 1982 for $39,600 (est.
$12,000/18,000). According to the catalog, the arms are those of
Nathaniel Byfield, 1st Judge of the Court of Vice-Admiralty, who
was born in 1653 in Surrey, England and arrived in Boston in
1674. In 1675 he married Deborah, a daughter of Capt. Thomas
Clarke, and after her death he married in 1718 Sarah, a daughter
of Governor Leverett.
This is a silver two-prong dog-nose fork by John Noyes of Boston, circa
1710, with upturned terminal. The back of the handle terminal is engraved
with contemporary block initials “HA,” and it is marked on the back of the
handle “IN.”
Its overall length is 7
⅜
"
and it weighs 1 oz. 6 dwt. The initials
are probably those of Hanna (Arnold) Welles. It sold for $10,625 to dealer
Jonathan Trace of Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
According to the catalog, two identical forks also engraved “HA” are in
the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. A fourth fork is in the
collection of the Sterling and Francine Clark Institute.