Description:
One of two silver porringers (see HD 1838) with a raised circular bowl with bulbous sides and a flared rim, domed center bottom, and cast handle pieced in a keyhole pattern with 11 voids, which is marked "MOULTON" incused once on the back of the handle, and engraved with the initials "MH" in script on the handle and the original weight of "8 oz. 7 dwt." scratched on the base. Ebenezer Moulton came from a family of silversmiths, starting with his grandfather, William (1720-c.1793), and granduncle, Joseph (1724-1795), his father, Joseph (1744-1816), and continuing with his three brothers, William (1772-1861), Enoch (1780-1820), and Abel (1784-1840), and his nephew, Joseph (1814-1903). With so many makers of the same name and the frequent omission of the first initial on the mark, there has been much confusion in the identification of the stamps. After training in his father's shop in Newburyport, Massachusetts, Ebenezer worked for much of his career in Boston starting about 1790 before returning to Newburyport about 1820, where he worked until his death in 1824. In Boston, he advertised "an extensive assortment of English made Silver Plate...., Jeweler's Tools, Flattened Mills"; in Newburyport, his shop had six counter cases and eight other cases for the display of goods, which included 1,027 onces of wrought silver. See also porringer, HD 53.019.
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+1838A |
