Description:
Silver pear-shaped cream pot marked "S:CASEY" in a rectangle on the base for Samuel Casey (1723/24- after 1799). The pot has a broad upturned lip with a scalloped rim; three, cast, and applied scrolled legs with trifid feet; solid cast, multiple-scrolled handle with an engraved furl and forked terminal; and a conical reinforcement joining the bottom handle juncture to the body. Three-legged pear-shaped cream pots (occasionally octagonal) became standard by 1730, and the form was favored by mid 18th century American makers. Beth Wees shows a similar, circa 1730 cream jug made by Henry Guillaume (d.1767) of Guernsey, Channel Islands. The Metropolitan Museum of Art also has two similar examples by Casey. Born in Newport, Rhode Island, Casy apprenticed with Boston silversmith Jacob Hurd, and was admitted as a freeman in Exeter, Rhode Island in 1745. By 1750, he had moved to Kingston, Rhode Island, to a village then called Little Rest. Samuel Casey was one of the most prominent silversmith of his day. Despite his success at attracting patrons, after a series of financial disasters, Casey eventually yielded to what was likely a temptation for many silversmiths – “money making” or counterfeiting silver coins. In 1770, he was arrested for counterfeiting Spanish and Portuguese coins and sentenced to hang. The night before his scheduled execution a band of supporters broke into the jail and freed Casey, who swiftly fled Rhode Island. He never returned to his home and his activities following his imprisonment are unknown. The Rhode Island State Archives show his wife, Martha Casey, petitioned the General Assembly for a pardon in September 1779 describing that Casey "wandered in exile nine years forlorn and forsaken and destitute of every means of support to make his life even desirable, separated from his wife and offspring," The pardon was granted on September 17, 1779, and Caesy was declared absolutely pardoned, released and discharged from all treason, felonies and other offenses done before 19 April 1775.
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https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+97.6.5 |
