A Handsome Cupboard of Plate
Early American Silver in the Cahn Collection

Deborah Dependahl Waters
with an appreciation by David L.Barquist



Summary

Full description

Contents

Author

Touring exhibition

Reviews

Enquiries

How to order

Where to find the book

Paul de Lamerie silver
in the Cahn Collection


Published by
John Adamson 
29 November 2012

120 pp.
43 colour illustrations
including 1 fold-out
11 5/8 × 8 5/8 in.
(296 × 220 mm)

ISBN
978-1-898565-11-6
Cloth
US$39.95 in North America
£35 elsewhere


This book is now out of print


Obtainable from any good bookseller or from:

John Adamson:
90 Hertford Street, Cambridge CB4 3AQ, UK.
e-mail: Book orders

Distributed in the United States and Canada by:

ACC Publishing Group, New York
e-mail: Book orders


Summary

The Cahn collection of early American domestic and presentation silver celebrates both American history and craftsmanship. Significant works by such masters as Jeremiah Dummer and Paul Revere Jr. of Boston and Joseph Richardson Sr. of Philadelphia are examined and products of the New York workshops of Jewish silversmith Myer Myers and his contemporaries are featured. The first comprehensive catalogue of the American silver owned by Paul and Elissa Cahn, this book accompanies a national touring exhibition organized by the Minneapolis Institute of Arts.

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Full description

Strength in design and fineness of craftsmanship unify the handsome cupboard of early American domestic and presentation silver assembled by Paul and Elissa Cahn over some thirty years and brought together for the first time in this book. The Cahns’ understanding of both the course of American history and the history of silversmiths’ work in the colonies and new nation has undoubtedly informed their choices. Beginning in Boston with a caudle cup of about 1690 marked by Jeremiah Dummer, America’s first native-born silversmith, and objects from the shop of patriot silversmith Paul Revere Jr. (1734–1818), the collection proceeds to focus on New York, where a distinctive style reflective of the Dutch heritage of that region emerged, and then on Philadelphia, where generations of the Quaker Richardson family supplied goods of the “best sort, but plain” to their clientele. Pride of place is given to the work of New York Jewish silversmith Myer Myers (1723–1795) and his contemporaries, including an extraordinary presentation waiter made for Theodorus Van Wyck in about 1768 by the Myers shop, and a unique set of four candlesticks marked by Samuel Tingley Jr., made between 1762 and 1767.

This book accompanies a touring exhibition of more than fifty items from the Cahn collection. Organized by the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, Minnesota, the exhibition elegantly reflects some of the remarkable ethnic, religious, and political diversity of early America, setting the craftsmanship and artistry of silversmiths working at that time in Boston, New York, and Philadelphia in their social and historical context.

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Contents

Foreword by Kaywin Feldman
Director and President, Minneapolis Institute of Arts

Acknowledgments

The Cahn Collection of Early American Silver: An Appreciation by David L. Barquist
The H. Richard Dietrich Jr. Curator of American Decorative Arts, Philadelphia Museum of Art

“A Handsome Cupboard of Plate”: Early American Silver and Silversmiths. An Introduction

Catalogue

Note to the reader

I
II
III

Boston
New York
Philadelphia

Frequent Bibliographical References and Note on Digital Resources

Photographic Credits

Index

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The Author

DEBORAH DEPENDAHL WATERS is an independent historian of American decorative arts, specializing in silver and furniture of the Mid-Atlantic region. Since 1987 she has been a member of the part-time teaching faculty for the Parsons-Cooper-Hewitt M.A. Program in the History of Decorative Arts and Design, and is currently president of New York Silver Society, Inc. Following employment with Winterthur Museum, Library, and Garden (Winterthur, Delaware), Christie’s New York, and the New York State Council on the Arts, she became Senior Curator of Decorative Arts and Manuscripts at the Museum of the City of New York in 1986, an appointment she held until 2008.

She is the editor and an author of Elegant Plate: Three Centuries of Precious Metals in New York City (2000), and a contributor to Art in the Empire City: New York, 1825–1861 (2000), and (2007), as well as lead author of The Jewelry and Metalwork of Marie Zimmermann (2011).

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Touring exhibition

This book was published in conjunction with the touring exhibition A Handsome Cupboard of Plate: Early American Silver in the Cahn Collection organized by the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. The venues were:

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Reviews

‘[A] handsome display of colonial era serving pieces -- tea and coffee pots, beer tankards, porringers, sauce boats, trays, candleholders -- handmade by some of the era’s most distinguished craftsmen, including Paul Revere of Boston, Myer Myers of New York and the Richardson family of Philadelphia’

Mary Abbe, Star Tribune, Minneapolis (full article)

‘There are plenty of notes and references, an index, and a well-written introduction to the collection that discusses makers, forms, styles, and marks.’

Maine Antique Digest, April 2013

‘A commendable exhibition catalogue ... [Deborah Dependahl Waters] uses the objects from the Cahn collection to weave a narrative of early American silver and silversmiths in her introductory essay, which is followed by 39 detailed entries full of concise and piercing analysis.’

Monica Obniski, Apollo, April 2013

‘This beautifully produced volume contains a great deal of information, much of which will be completely new to the students of English silver.’

Charles Truman, Silver Studies, 2013

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Enquiries

Contact the publisher for further information:

e-mail: book enquiries,

letter: John Adamson, 90 Hertford Street, Cambridge
CB4 3AQ, England

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How to order the book offline

Please print off the order form and send it by mail to John Adamson, 90 Hertford Street, Cambridge CB4 3AQ, England.

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