A SILVER CREAM JUG

ATTRIBUTED TO JOHN PITTS, BOSTON, CIRCA 1730

Details

A SILVER CREAM JUG
Attributed to John Pitts, Boston, circa 1730
Baluster form on molded foot, with scroll handle, the spout with V-shaped seam, engraved on front Alice Whipple 1732 Elizabeth Howell Cowell 1832 Elizabeth Cowell Morris 1885 Henry Charles Morris 1942 Michael Wynne Morris 1944, marked twice under base
3.14in. high; 2oz.
Pitts, Richard

Lot Essay

A porringer in the Metropolitan Museum of Art with the same mark is also engraved Alice Whipple 1732. The script Pitts mark in an oval has been the object of some debate. Ensko (Stephen G. C. Ensko, American Silversmiths and Their Marks III, 1948, p. 224) attributes the script Pitts in an oval to Richard Pitts of Philadelphia, circa 1740. Martha Gandy Fales suggests differently in her book Joseph Richardson and His Family, (1974, p.289), attributing the mark to John Pitts of Boston, circa 1730. The engraving on both the Metropolitan's porringer and this cream jug suggest that Fales' attribution is correct.