| Maker(s): | Hurd, Jacob
| | Culture: | American (1702/3-1758)
| | Title: | teapot
| | Date Made: | ca. 1735
| | Type: | Food Service
| | Materials: | silver, wood
| | Place Made: | United States; Massachusetts; Boston
| | Measurements: | overall: 5 1/2 in x 8 3/4 in x 4 3/16 in; 13.97 cm x 22.225 cm x 10.63625 cm
| | Accession Number: | HD 97.6.3
| | Credit Line: | Gift of Janette F. Weber, in Memory of her husband, Frederick C. Weber, Jr., M.D.
| | Museum Collection: | Historic Deerfield
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Description:
Silver, apple-shaped teapot marked "Jacob / Hurd" in a shaped cartouche once on base for Jacob Hurd (1702/3-1758) although Patricia Kane questions this mark, and engraved with diaper and foliate motifs on upper body encircling the lid which is decorated with four fleur-de-lys, and a "LS" (cypher) centered in a baroque cartouche of foliate scrolls in a circular reserve on the side for a member of the Seymour family of Connecticut in which the teapot descended. 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. During Hurd’s lifetime the taste for tea drinking became popular, and he met the demand for new silver forms with some of the earliest New England teapots known today. The flat lid has an integral three-part hinge, and a stepped button-shape ebony finial with an engraved silver cap, which is bolted to the lid. The C-scrolled wooden handle has a prominent furl and plain silver sockets; the S-shaped spout has pendant drop, and the lower half of the spout is panelled while the upper part is plain and tubular. This teapot shows an excessive amount of fire scale which detracts from its appearance. When the silver piece was finished it was heated and plunged several times into a bath of pickle (an acidic solution) - the acidic leached the copper out of the surface of the silver - leaving a very pure silver coating on the surface of the pot. The piece has been over polished in its lifetime so that the outer layer of silver has been removed leaving a blotchy surface.
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+97.6.3 |
