Description:
The ewer is an example of Late Classical-style New York silver. Composed of an urn shaped body, high arching handle, broad pouring lip, narrow stem, circular chased foot. The handle is decorated with reeding covered with leaves. Die rolled bands of beading and classical ornament border the top rim and shoulder of the body respectively. The lower area of the body is chased with palmettes and leaves of varying design. An interwoven design incorporating flowers decorates the ball above the stepped, pedestal foot decorated with acanthus leaves. Engraved on side in script: "James Fowler / from his sister / Frances F. Dwight / Jan. 4th 1848 / [on reverse] A token of gratitude." The underside of the foot is stamped "B. GARDINER" in a rectangle but has been obscured, beneath are the pseudo hallmarks associated with Baldwin Gardiner, [sovereign head] "G" and [rampant lion]; the ewer is marked by the Boston retailer 'GEORGE B. FOSTER' on the outside edge of the foot. Baldwin Gardiner trained in the famous shop of his brother, Sidney Gardiner of Fletcher & Gardiner. He worked for them in Boston and then after their move to Philadelphia. About 1830, he moved to New York City and set up a retail shop advertising as a "Manufacturer of Silverware, and Importer of Lamps and Chandeliers..." A pair of identical model ewers marked by Baldwin Gardiner, with different ornamentation, are in the collection of the New York Historical Society Museum. They were a presentation to Commodore Isaac Chauncey in 1833. The Museum of the City of New York also has a pair of slightly smaller ewers with identical decoration. In 1824, Frances Fowler (1797-1886) (born in Northampton, MA) married Henry Williams Dwight of Stockbridge, MA. Her brother, James Lyman Fowler (1789-1873), was a Yale graduate and lawyer in Westfield, MA. who also served as both a state Representative and Senator from 1820-30. The ewer may have been a piece of older silver that was retailed by George Foster in Boston in the 1840s. The ewer was likely given as a gift by his sister to commemorate her brother's 59th birthday (Jan. 4th, 1789).
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+2018.37 |
