MARK OF JONATHAN OTIS, NEWPORT, CIRCA 1760

Details

A RARE SET OF TWO SILVER SALT CELLARS AND TWO PEPPER CASTERS
Mark of Jonathan Otis, Newport, circa 1760
The pair of salt cellars of cauldron form, on three hoof feet, the casters of baluster form on stepped circular foot, the detachable domed cover engraved with diaperwork panels and stylized leaves, with baluster finial, marked under bases of salt cellars and body of casters with maker's mark and each also engraved with block initials N over T * E
The salt cellars 2¾in. diameter, the pepper casters 5¾in. high; 16oz. (4)

Lot Essay

This set of matching casters and salt cellars is extremely rare in American silver. Three individual casters of similar form by Jonathan Otis survive: one in the Garvan Collection, Yale University Art Gallery; one in the Rhode Island School of Design Museum; and the third in a private collection, published in Ralph E. Carpenter, Jr., The Arts and Crafts of Newport, Rhode Island, 1954, cat. no. 104, p. 162. Another surviving example of matching casters and salt cellars is a set by John Coburn of Boston, circa 1762, although the monograms are not the same, as they are on the present lot. They are now in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and illustrated in Kathryn C. Buhler, American Silver in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1972, vol. 1, cat. no. 268-9, pp. 313-14.

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