Description:
Silver sauceboat with an applied beaded edge, applied hollow-cast handle with an applied leaf end, full bulbous body, and three attached curved legs topped by seven-lobed shells and terminating in shell feet, which is marked "I. TYLER" or "T.TYLER" in a serrated rectangle once on the base, and engraved with the initials "MP" in block letters on the back of the double scrolled handle and scratched "256=" on the base. According to Patrica Kane, this silversmith may have been a member of the Tyler family of Boston in which metalsmithing was a tradition. This family included brazier and pewterer John Tyler (1695-1757) and his brothers, the pewterer William Tyler and the goldsmith Andrew Tyler (1692/93-1741). Possible candidates include James Tyler (b.1724), one of ten children of John Tyler and Sarah Bream Tyler (b.1699), although it is not clear is he was a silversmith; Boston silversmith George Tyler (b.1755), the grandson of Andrew Tyler; or Boston silversmith David Tyler (c.1760-1804). There are three marks identified with I. or T. Tyler: the initial I or T and surname in a serrated rectangle; the surname in a serrated rectangle; and "J.T" in a rectangle, which may be the mark used by I. Tyler in the early years of his career. Two spoons with this mark (in the Cleveland Museum of Art and Winterthur) have similar engraving and eleven-lobed shells used on spoons made by George Tyler.
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https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+65.149.2 |
