Description:
Silver mustard pot marked "J.HEATH" in a rounded rectangle for John Heath (c.1721-c.1806) once on the flat base, and with a flat top decorated with three pairs of incised bands; a gadronned rim around the decoratively pierced, straight sides; foliate thumbpiece and scroll handle; and new blue glass liner (according to the dealer). John Heath became a freeman in New Yok in 1761, and in 1763, advertised in the "New York Mercury" as a "goldsmith, in Wall-street." Mustard was another commonly used spice. Composed of crushed seeds of the mustard plant, this condiment does not become pungent until it is mixed with vinegar, water, or some other liquid. The majority of mustard pots produced in the second half of the 18th century were fashioned as small cylinders with hinged lids, causing them to be referred to at the time as "mustard tankards." Pierced examples were usually fitted with removable blue glass liners, which allowed for easy cleaning and reduced the corrosion to the silver. The small notch in the front accomodated a miniature spoon. According to David Barquist regarding a pair of pierced salts marked by John Heath, which may also apply to this pierced example: "A silversmith with such a small production as John Heath would have been unlikely to have made such labor-intensive objects as pierced salts in his workshop. He may have relied on a skilled, specialist piercer in New York to produce those objects, perhaps the same specialist who executed [pierced] bottle stands for Myer Myers... Beth Carver Wees has observed that another, almost pair of pierced salts marked by Heath are strickingly similar to examples made in London in the 1763-72 partnership of David Hennell I and Robert Hennell I... Again like Myer's bottles stands, the salts exhibit no traces of English hallmarks and only one strike of the American silversmith's mark...It is nevertheless possible that these salts were imported from England for resale. As objects for resale they may have been unmarked, or Heath could have filled or hammered over the hallmarks, particularly at a time of rising hostility to English imports. Other American silversmiths are known to have imported pierced salts" including Joseph Richardson, St., of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
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https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+64.231 |
