MARK OF ISAAC HUTTON, ALBANY, CIRCA 1809, THE ENGRAVING BY GIDEON FAIRMAN

Details

A SILVER PRIZE BOWL
MARK OF ISAAC HUTTON, ALBANY, CIRCA 1809, THE ENGRAVING BY GIDEON FAIRMAN
Circular, on molded circular foot, the body engraved on one side with the arms of the State of New York and with presentation inscription on one side, marked under base, the engraved arms signed G. Fairman del.et.sculp. Albany
7¾in. diameter; 17oz.

Engraved

STATE OF NEW-YORK 8th March 1809 By the Society for the Promotion of Useful Arts To George Booth of the County of Dutchess THIS PIECE of PLATE is AWARDED pursuant to an Act of the Legislature passed 8th April 1808 AS A PREMIUM for the third best of the Specimens of Woolen Cloth of family Manufacture produced from the several Counties in this State the present year

Lot Essay

This bowl joins a group of silver objects commissioned by Albany's Society for the Promotion of Useful Arts to be given as agricultural prizes. The Society was chartered in 1804, aiming to "make improvements in agriculture" in New York. This third prize bowl was awarded to George Booth and is documented in the Society's Minutes taken on March 21st, 1810, "to the said George Booth of County of Dutchess a premium of 150 Dollars in a piece of plate."

Isaac Hutton is one of Albany's most well-known and prolific silversmiths. Other objects made by Hutton for the Society for the Promotion of Useful Arts include a teapot and bowl at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and a bowl now in the collection of the Albany Institute of History & Art.

Gideon Fairman (1774-1827) finished his engraving apprenticeship with Isaac and George Hutton, and in 1796 set up his own engraving shop in Albany.

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