Description: Silver-plated cruet set with five glass bottle, three of which have their original tops. According to family tradition, this cruet set originally belonged to Caleb Strong (1745-1819), who was born and died in Northampton, was United States senator from 1789-1797 and governor of Massachusetts from 1800-1807 and 1812-1816. The set came through Minnie D. Clark of Northampton, Mass., the niece of Merritt Clark (1829-19?), a Northampton clothing retailer who made his fortune manufacturing Civil War uniforms. Marritt Clark married Sarah Josepine King in 1859; they collected antiques in Northampton where they may have acquired this cruet set, which is shown sitting on a sideboard in a picture from their house and identified as once belonging to Strong, and set of chairs (HD 64.062/E) from a descendent of Caleb Strong. After his wife's death in in 1909, Minnie Clark was Marritt's companion and housekeeper; Minnie died in 1938 or 1939 and the set ultimately went to her great nephew, Charles Eli Clark of New Haven , whose wife gave it to HD in 1964.
Link to share this object record: https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+64.063 |