Description:
Small pewter plate made by Samuel Pierce (1767-1840), a pewterer and whitesmith of Greenfield, MA. Pewter plate made by Samuel Pierce (1767-1840). Born in Middletown, Connecticut, Samuel Pierce was apprenticed to the Danforths, a well-known family of pewterers in Middletown, probably mostly with Joseph Danforth (1758-1788). Pierce completed his training about 1789 and married Anne Joyce (1769-1843) in 1790; he moved his family to Greenfield in 1792 or early 1793, where he had began to work for Col. William Moore (b.1762), a successful Greenfield businessman, in his mill, and made pewter and other white metal products on his own account. By 1799, Pierce was in partnership with blacksmith Ambrose Ames shipping commodities on the river; however, after an outbreak of dysentary in Greefield in 1802 killed three of their five children, the Pierces moved to Colrain, Massachusetts, where he titled himself as a cooper in a deed of 1804 and mainly farmed until returning to Greenfield about 1807. He then went into partnership with merchant Hart Leavitt (1765-1836) as Pierce & Leavitt, and by 1810, was the 6th most prominent men in Greenfield. After President Thomas Jefferson's Trade Embargo in 1807 and the War of 1812 destroyed New England's commerce, Pierce went back to the forge and again he was succesful as a whitesmith, selling a wide range of pewter, tin and lead products. In 1821, Samuel turned the business over to his son John Joyce Pierce (1793-1878) although Samuel's accounts show that he continued to work in metals into the ealy 1830s. According to Philip Zea (2/3/2010), probably most of Pierce's own commerical pewter production found in HD's collection can be dated between 1795-1810. Samuel Pierce's surviving tools are owned by Historic Deerfield and are displayed in the Museum's Attic. The account books for Samuel Pierce also survive and are located in the Memorial Libraries, Deerfield, MA. This plate is rare for its small size. Small diameter, circular plate with curved rim, shallow bouge, and flat well, rim of plate is slightly beaded, there is a circular incised line on the well, plate was cast in a mold and then skimmed to remove any extra metal and also to bring up a polish; plate is stamped on underside in the center, "SP/X" in a serrated oval. Pierce was known to have used at least two marks for his pewter wares: the "SP/X" mark and "Samuel/ Pierce" with an eagle. What diameter?
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https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+2006.22 |
