Description:
Similar to American salvers, this example is remarkably heavy compared to similar English salvers - perhaps because "flatting" (hammering out a sheet from an ingot) was the most difficult of all the silversmith's skills. The thinner the piece got the more likely it was to buckle, and be unusable for a salver. Octagonal silver salver with an applied molded rim consisting of four slightly shaped sides and four incurving corner sides, and supported on four equally-spaced, short cabriole legs ending in pad feet, which is marked "IHURD" in a shaped cartouche once on the base for Jacob Hurd (1702/3-1758), and engraved with the Arms of Bullfinch impaling Colman (three thistle, and crest, a bird impaling Colman arms, azure upon a pale rayonne or a lion rampant) in a finely engraved surround on the face. This salver was probably made for Dr. Thomas Bulfinch (1694-1757) of Boston and Judith Colman (1707-1765) of Boston who married in 1724. Their grandson, Charles Bulfinch (1764-1844), was an early American architect and regarded by many as the first native-born American to practice architecture as a profession. In 1661, Thomas Blount in his "Glossographia" defined the salver as: "a new fashioned piece of wrought plate broad and flat, with a foot underneath, and is used in giving Beer, or other liquid thing, to save the Carpit and Cloathes from drops." Jacob Hurd has long been recognized as one of the leading New England silversmiths of the mid-18th century. The patriarch of a prominent Boston silversmithing family, he produced a wide range of tablewares in the Queen Anne style. Wgt. 25 1/2 ozs., 4 dwts., 6 grs.
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+62.450 |
