Description:
Silver coffeepot (unmarked) with a hinged, double-domed cover and hollow-cast pinecone finial, double-bellied body encircled with a band of repousse floral decoration, S-curved, double-curved wooden handle, and three cast legs with shell feet; and engraved with "Elizth Crowningshield / 1769" in script on the base. On April 23, 1761, Elizabeth D. Crowninshield (1736-1799), the daugher of John Crowninshield (1696-1761) and Anstiss Williams (d.1774), married Elias Hasket Derby (1739-1799), the son of Richard Derby (1712-1783) and Mary Hodges (1734-1783) of Salem, who became the wealthiest and most celebrated of post-Revolutionary merchants in Salem, Massachusetts, and owner of the "Grand Turk," the first New England vessel to trade directly with China in 1784. This coffeepot was listed in the inventory of Elias Hasket Derby in 1799: "one do [Silver] Coffee Pot 52.10 @ 1.10 / $ / 57.75." The coffeepot descended through their son, John Derby; to his son, Dr. George Derby of Boston who married Elizabeth Parsons; to his son, Dr. William Parsons Derby who sold the coffeepot to the Boston silver dealer, J. Herbert Gebelein in 1948. This coffeepot closely resembles one made by Paul Revere for Elias Hasket Derby's father, Richard Derby, in 1772. Both of these resemble a coffeepot made by Arthur Annesly of London in 1759/60, which was given by Jonathan Simpson of Boston to his niece Mary Viall (1737-1802) who married Dr. Edward Augustus (1728-1829) of Salem in 1760, and is now in the Peabody-Essex collection. All three have a simple pear shape, domed lid, large finial, handle shaping, decoration, and three shell and scroll legs, with the major difference being the repousse work around the lower body of the Crowninshield example which may have been added later, probbly in the 1850s. It has been questioned if the Crowninshield pot was made by Paul Revere. Although the design with similar finials, legs, shell ornament, and handles is the same, there are some differences in details; the domed lid of the Crowninshield pot has no scribing defining the steps of the dome as found generally in Revere works; the Crowninshield pot has furl that is wider and more pronounced on the top of the spout than found on other spouts known to have been fashioned by Revere; the Crowninshield pot is double-bellied and the Revere pot is single-bellied; and the reposse work on the Crowninshield pot is not similar to Revere's repousse work. Wgt. 52 ozs., 5 dwts.
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https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+61.079 |
