Jacob Hurd Silver Cann

Description:

Jacob Hurd Silver Cann, (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" and "1793," ending with a disc at its lower point of attachment above the molded base band; engraved on the front in block 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 Henry Austin (1826-1889),a noted Boston financier and railroad operator, (imperfections),ht. 4 3/4, dia. 3 3/4 in., approx. 10 troy oz.; An engraving of the Samuel Whitney home in Castine, Maine is pictured on p. 36 of a privately published and bound biography of Samuel Whitney, by his great-grandson Henry Austin Whitney. a.

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 Boston in 1757 at the Brattle Street Church, to Abigail Cutler (1735-1813) of Union Street, Boston, who also died in Castine. They had 17 children and lived on Union Street until his retail business did poorly due to the Revolutionary War, which led him to buy a farm in Concord, Massachusetts, where he opened a country store. The house in Concord in which they 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 from 1774-75, and a member of the Committee of Correspondence. He fought at the Old North Bridge 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, 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.
Estimate $8,000-12,000

Repair/reinforcement to joinery on handle top, dents to sides and base,

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