MARK OF JOHN CONEY, BOSTON, CIRCA 1715

Details

THE WILLIAM MANLEY SILVER BEAKER
MARK OF JOHN CONEY, BOSTON, CIRCA 1715
The body engraved Ex dono M / WP to South Church and scratch-engraved 1715 under base, marked on body with Kane mark C
5 ¾ in. (14.4 cm.) high; 10 oz. (314 gr.)

Provenance

William and Phebe (Brooks) Manley, married in 1686

Literature

E. Alfred Jones, Old Silver of American Churches, 1913, p. 53, illus. Plate XX
Francis Hill Bigelow, Historic Silver of the Colonies and its Makers, 1917; illus. p. 84
Hermann F. Clarke, John Coney, Silversmith, 1655-1722, 1971, no. 36
Patricia E. Kane, Colonial Massachusetts Silversmiths and Jewelers, 1998, p. 322

Exhibited

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, “Exhibition of Silversmithing by John Coney,” 1932, no. 54

Lot Essay

John Coney was the greatest silversmith of his generation, celebrated for the quality of his workmanship as well as the variety of forms he produced. This beaker displays Coney’s virtuosity in its proportions, large scale, and heavy gauge. After his death, Rev. Thomas Foxcroft wrote that Coney was “excellently talented for the Employment assign’d Him, and took a peculiar Delight therein” (Patricia E. Kane, Colonial Massachusetts Silversmiths and Jewelers, 1998, p. 321).

William Manley (c. 1648-1732) married Phebe Brooks (1652-1720) in Boston in 1686. She was one of nine daughters of Gilbert Brooks (c. 1621-1695) and Elizabeth Symons of Rehoboth. William Manley was a slater and was admitted as a freeman of Boston in 1690. He bequeathed money to the poor of the new South Brick Church in his will of 1732.

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