Lot Essay
[photo caption for B&W:] The Brattle Street Church's building of 1772, Brattle Square, Boston, with Faneuil Hall in the background. Photograph 1866-1872; Courtesy of the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities
The Brattle Street Church, founded in 1699, was one of the most prosperous congregations in Boston, and consequently assembled one of the finest collections of communion silver of the 18th century. The fact that John Edwards, maker of the present tankard, and silversmiths Edward Winslow and John Noyes were members of the church also accounts for the high quality of the silver they made for their own congregation. The Brattle Street treasury comprised about thirty known pieces, over twenty of which are now in museum collections. In 1913, the church presented fourteen pieces of silver to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and additional pieces were acquired by the Yale University Art Gallery, The Smithsonian, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Worcester Art Museum. A tankard by Andrew Tyler of 1732, a virtual mate to the present example, belongs to the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown. Four flagons, three tankards, and two cups, ranging in date from 1704 to 1732, all share the same distinctive engraved mantling surmounted by a cherub's head found on the present example.
The present tankard was separated from the Brattle Street Church silver in 1839, when the church members held an auction of fourteen pieces: Dec.29, 1839. A meeting of the Church was held this day at the House of Deacon Moses Grant . . . . Objection was made that it was hardly respectable, certainly not pleasant for Brattle Street Church to offer its supernumerary pieces of plate most of them gifts for the communion service for sale in any public way. While it was very proper to sell it & make the income available to the poor of the Church, it should be done in a private & not public manner. It was then proposed that as there was a full meeting of the male members of the Church, the plate should be sold then & there by auction; the Brethren to bid for choice & then select what piece or pieces he chose at the appraisal. This was done; & in a few moments the pieces were all sold. (as quoted in David B. Warren et al., Marks of Achievement, 1987, p.34; a tankard by John Noyes with engraving matching the present example is illustrated on p.34.)
The only pieces known to survive from the 1839 auction, other than the present tankard, are the Noyes tankard, the Tyler tankard, and a tankard by William Cowell of 1705, now on loan to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
The Brattle Street Church, founded in 1699, was one of the most prosperous congregations in Boston, and consequently assembled one of the finest collections of communion silver of the 18th century. The fact that John Edwards, maker of the present tankard, and silversmiths Edward Winslow and John Noyes were members of the church also accounts for the high quality of the silver they made for their own congregation. The Brattle Street treasury comprised about thirty known pieces, over twenty of which are now in museum collections. In 1913, the church presented fourteen pieces of silver to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and additional pieces were acquired by the Yale University Art Gallery, The Smithsonian, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Worcester Art Museum. A tankard by Andrew Tyler of 1732, a virtual mate to the present example, belongs to the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown. Four flagons, three tankards, and two cups, ranging in date from 1704 to 1732, all share the same distinctive engraved mantling surmounted by a cherub's head found on the present example.
The present tankard was separated from the Brattle Street Church silver in 1839, when the church members held an auction of fourteen pieces: Dec.29, 1839. A meeting of the Church was held this day at the House of Deacon Moses Grant . . . . Objection was made that it was hardly respectable, certainly not pleasant for Brattle Street Church to offer its supernumerary pieces of plate most of them gifts for the communion service for sale in any public way. While it was very proper to sell it & make the income available to the poor of the Church, it should be done in a private & not public manner. It was then proposed that as there was a full meeting of the male members of the Church, the plate should be sold then & there by auction; the Brethren to bid for choice & then select what piece or pieces he chose at the appraisal. This was done; & in a few moments the pieces were all sold. (as quoted in David B. Warren et al., Marks of Achievement, 1987, p.34; a tankard by John Noyes with engraving matching the present example is illustrated on p.34.)
The only pieces known to survive from the 1839 auction, other than the present tankard, are the Noyes tankard, the Tyler tankard, and a tankard by William Cowell of 1705, now on loan to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.