Lot Essay
The arms are those of Stoddard, possibly for a descendant of Colonel John Stoddard (1681-1748) of Boston, Massachusetts. An almost identical cann by Nathaniel Hurd engraved with the same coat-of-arms was sold at Sotheby's, New York, 23 January 2023, lot 936. Further silver by Nathaniel Hurd for the Stoddard family includes a teapot at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts, for Prudence Stoddard (Acc. No. 63.1044), tablespoons and teaspoons referenced in P. Kane, Colonial Massachusetts Silversmiths and Jewelers, New Haven, 1998, pp. 620-621, and a coffee pot engraved with the arms of Chauncy impaling Stoddard illustrated in H. French, Jacob Hurd and his Sons, Cambridge, 1939, p. 101, plate XXII.