Description:
Silver tankard with a double-scroll handle made by John Hastier (1691-1770), a French Huguenot emigre to NYC, with the touchmark "J H" in roman letters in a rectangle twice and inscribed "oz/ 29 dwt/17" on the base; and a paper label "DEPT OF METALWORK/ ON LOAN FROM/ L. Fl. Crichton/ No. 84 19? [From the Victoria and Albert Museum]." Hastier became a Freeman in 1726; advertised in the 1735 "New York Journal" with a shop on Queen Street; and the last known ad appeared on May 15, 1758 in the New York Gazette: "Run away on Monday last from John Hastier, of this City, Goldsmith, a lusty well-set Negro Man named Jasper..." This flat cover and straight, slightly tapered body characterized NY tankards throughout the 18th century; the double-scroll handle, extra rise in the lid, and slight attenuation of form suggest a date after mid-century. This tankard was one of 92 pieces in the Watson-Crichton Collection (Watson #18), 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.
Label Text:
Unnamed Figures, May 1, 2024-August 4, 2024: This tankard marked “IH” for the New York silversmith John Hastier, bears witness to the unacknowledged labor of enslaved Black silversmith Jasper, whose existence is only known through a 1758 newspaper advertisement calling for his return. Hastier described Jasper as a well-dressed, educated, and capable artisan who “understands the Silversmith’s Trade.” Jasper’s shop work likely ranged from melting silver in crucibles, hammering discs of the malleable metal, casting parts in molds, soldering pieces together, and polishing the completed objects.
John Hastier, a Huguenot refugee from La Rochelle, France, who operated his shop on Queen Street (now Pearl Street), enslaved at least three individuals. In his 1762 will, Hastier bequeathed to his daughters a girl named Abagail and a woman named Silvia. During much of the 18th century, New York was second only to Charleston, South Carolina, in its proportion of enslaved people within an urban population. During Hastier’s career, one in five New Yorkers was Black, and nearly all of them were enslaved.
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+54.465 |
