06-05-200506-05-2005
Skinner Auctions
Skinner AuctionsBoston MA
2295Boston
June 5, 2005 11:00 AMCalender
88

Silver Cann

Sell one like this
$19,975$17,000
Auction: American Furniture & Decorative Arts - 2295Location: BostonDate / Time: June 05, 2005 11:00AM

Description:

Silver Cann, Jacob Hurd, (1702/3-1758),Boston, 1728, the molded rim with incised lines below, above Jacob Hurd touchmark on the tapering sides that include an applied bead mid-band and a scroll handle marked "W" "1793," with a shaped edge on the top and ending with a disc at its lower point of attachment above the molded base band; engraved on the front in black letters, "Samuel Whitney," with "Caftine" in script below; the bottom records in script the Whitney Family ownership beginning with Samuel (1734-1808) and ending with Ellerton Pratt Whitney (b. 1858); (minor imperfections),ht. 4 3/4, dia. 3 3/4 in., approx. 10 troy oz.

Provenance: Family descent to the consignor from Samuel Whitney, who was born in Marlboro, Massachusetts, Sept. 5, 1734, and died May 29. 1808, in Castine, Maine. He was married in 1757 in the Brattle Street Church, Boston, to Abigail Cutler (1735-1813) of Union Street Boston, who also died in Castine, Maine. They had 17 children and lived on Union Street until 1737. His retail business did poorly due to the Revolutionary War, causing him to buy a farm in Concord, Massachusetts, where he opened a country store. The house in which he lived still stands, now as an historic house museum called the Wayside, in commemoration of two important subsequent occupants, A. Bronson Alcott, and later, Nathaniel Hawthorne. Samuel Whitney took a leadership role in Concord as "Muster Master," and, later, as a member of the Provincial Congress 1774-75 and a member of the Committee of Correspondence. He fought at the Old Worth Budge as a member of the Concord Minutemen, who met and drove back the British in that historically important event. Samuel moved back to Boston in 1776, when the British evacuated and engaged in various mercantile activities until he and his family moved to Castine, Maine, in 1793.

Literature: American Silver, 1655-1825, in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston vol. I, by Katherine C. Buhler, pp. 203-204 pictures and describes a very similar mug or cann.

Note: A typed copy of the Whitney family history accompanies this lot.
Estimate $7,000-9,000

Keywords

Samuel Whitney, Maine, Castine, Massachusetts, Jacob Hurd, Hurd, Marlboro, Brattle Street Church, Abigail Cutler, retail, A. Bronson Alcott, Wayside, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Provincial Congress, Committee of Correspondence, Concord Minutemen, Katherine C. Buhler