Description:
Silver sugar bowl with a raised high, double-domed cover with gadrooned rim and hollow-cast flame finial; and a raised circular double-bellied body on a molded flared foot. The bowl is marked "R. Humphreys" in script on the base, and engraved with the initials "GE" in script within a rococo shell and scrollwork cartouche surrounded by floral sprays on the side. During his visit to HD on June 13, 2013, Tim Martin of S. J. Shrubsole of NYC thought that this bowl was a beautiful example of the double-bellied sugar bowl form, and that it was part of a tea service owned by wealthy land owner George Emlen IV (1741-1812) of Philadelphia, a major patron of Humphreys, who married Sarah Fishbourne in 1775. The Philadelphia Museum of Art, which has several similarly engraved pieces, describes the rococo service ordered for Emlen's marriage consisting of approximately 28 pieces including a suite of 4 sauceboats, a set of castors with a stand, salt dishes, coffeepot, salver tray, and 4 canns. Some pieces have been sold at auction including 2 canns sold at Sotheby' s NYon June 28, 1984, lot 80, a salver sold January 16, 1997, lot 92, and 2 sauceboats in 1999? Many of the surviving pieces thus far discovered bear the engraved cipher of Emlen within an asymmetrical rococo cartouche. Extensive silver services such as this, because of their initial expense, were found in only the most genteel 18th-century households. This service is one of the largest thus far documented. Born in the Tortola, British Virgin Islands, on a plantation owned by his Quaker parents, Humphreys moved to Boston in 1764 where he became a successful silversmith, working until 1797 when he was then listed as a "china merchant." This sugar bowl is similar to Humphreys coffeepot (HD 61.464), but they were not made as a part of the same set.
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+62.046 |
