Description:
Silver, pear-shaped cann with a leaf-capped double-scroll handle marked "N. Hurd" in roman letters in a rectangle to the left of the handle for Nathaniel Hurd (1729/30-1777), and engraved with the Lloyd coat of arms (crest, a lion rampant gules; and the arms, sable 3 scaling ladders and between the two uppermost a spear's head argent point embrued on a chief gules a castle triple towered of the second) in a rococo cartouche on the front. Nathaniel and his brother, Benjamin Hurd (1738-1781) were both trained by their father, Boston silversmith Jacob Hurd (1702/03-1758). Nathaniel was also known for his talent as an engraver, which included his silver engravings, trade cards, seal cutting and die sinking, political caricatures and engraved prints (see HD 61.147). An entry in "America Heraldica" describes the Lloyd family: "In 1679, James Lloyd, Esquire, of Boston, son of Sir John Lloyd of Bristol, England, succeeded, partly by purchase, partly in right of his wife, Grizzle Sylvester, daughter of the original proprietor, to the estate called, later the 'Manor of Lloyd's Neck,' on Long Island. His son, Henry, second Lord of the Manor, in 1708 married a daughter of John Nelson, Esquire, of Boston. The arms we give have been constantly used by the first American ancestors of the family, and ever since by their descendents." According to various records, Henry Lloyd (1685-1763) was the son of James Lloyd (c.1653-1698), a Boston merchant who married Grizzelda Sylvester (1654-1688/91), the daughter of Nathaniel Sylvester, in 1676, resulting in his coming into possession of part of "Horse Neck," a peninsula on the north shore of Long Island, NY, now called Lloyd Neck. In 1685, Lieutenant Governor Thomas Dongan granted James Lloyd the royal patent for Horse Neck, formally renaming it the "Manor of Queens Village." Lloyd remained in Boston, leasing the land until 1711 when his 24-year-old son Henry gave up a shipping business in Newport, R.I., to farm the Lloyd Neck tract. One of his enslaved men, Jupiter Hammon, was America's first Black poet. In 1708, Henry Lloyd married Rebecca Nelson (1688-1728), the daughter of John Nelson of Long Island in the Boston harbor and Elizabeth Tailer, in Boston, and they had ten children. During the American Revolution, the surviving children split into patriots and loyalists. A merchant and supplier to the occupying British troops in Boston, Henry Lloyd II (1709-1795) and his family remained in Boston until 1776 when the British Army left Boston for Halifax, and then England where he died in London. Other members of the Lloyd and related families also left for England including Joshua Loring, Jr. (1744-1789) who married one of the Lloyd daughters in 1769. The matching cann, which also came from an English collection, was sold by Sotheby's in 1991 to S.J. Shrubsole Corp. of NY, which had it for sale in 1991 and 1994. Drinking vessels with a bulbous shape and without lids were popular in the colonies from the 1720s to around 1800; canns varied little in shape other than in their handles, which tended to be double-scrolled starting in the mid 1700s. This cann was one of 92 pieces in the Watson-Crichton Collection (Watson #9), acquired by the Flynts in 1954 from Victor A. Watson (1897-1974), son-in-law and partner of Lionel Alfred Crichton (1866-1938), a retail silversmith and dealer in antique plate with shops in London, New York City and Chicago. Crichton, who was considered one of Britain's most prominent silver dealers of the early 20th century, started collecting American colonial silver for his own personal interest after WWI; the Watsons refused to sell the collection until meeting the Flynts. American silver found in England with English family heirlooms has been called "loyalist silver," since many pieces came to England with returning loyalists; however, this broadly-used term does not allow for pieces sent as gifts and taken over later.
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