Description:
One of a set of five silver teaspoons with an elongated, pointed oval bowl and downturned coffin-end handle with an incised V-shaped drop on the back, which have the touchmark "N.S" in a rectangle for Nathaniel Shipman, Jr. (1764-1853), and are engraved "EW" in foliate script on the front of the handle. Shipman apprenticed to Thomas Harland (1735?-1807) of Norwich, Connecticut, and set up business in 1785 as a clockmaker and silversmith. His account books for 1785-1836 show that he made dials, pewter, glasses, watch keys, etc, for Thomas Harland until Harland's death in 1807, and also jewelry, watches, table silverware, warming pans, and clocks. The set probably originally had six spoons; 18th century silversmith shop records, such as those of Paul Revere and the Richardsons of Philadelphia, suggest that spoons were generally purchased by the half-dozen or dozen. It was only in the 19th century that large services of flatware, with matching patterns of forks and spoons for various uses, were ordered en suite. Persis Sheldon's Sept. 12, 1828 will lists "tablespoon marked D.S. to P.S.". "silver spoon marked P.S.", "four silver teaspoons marked P.S.", "two silver teaspoons marked M.S.", and "four silver teaspoons marked T.P.S."
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+61.061.5 |
