BIGELOW BROS. AND KENNARD, BOSTON, CIRCA 1847
Details
A SILVER FLAGON AND SIX GOBLETS
bigelow bros. and kennard, boston, circa 1847
The flagon cylindrical with domed cover and flame finial; the goblets and flagon all engraved with inscription; marked under bases
flagon 13½in. high, goblets 7in. high; 100oz.
The inscriptions read: Presented by the First Church in Roxbury to the Mount Pleasant Congregational Church October 1st 1847 (7)
bigelow bros. and kennard, boston, circa 1847
The flagon cylindrical with domed cover and flame finial; the goblets and flagon all engraved with inscription; marked under bases
flagon 13½in. high, goblets 7in. high; 100oz.
The inscriptions read: Presented by the First Church in Roxbury to the Mount Pleasant Congregational Church October 1st 1847 (7)
Provenance
The Mount Pleasant Congregational Church, also known as the Second Unitarian Church in Roxbury, dedicated its first meeting house on July 29, 1846. It was customary in New England for an established church to give communion silver to a new congregation, and the First Church in Roxbury was certainly well established, as it had been founded in 1632. In 1847, when this gift was made, John Quincy Adams was the moderator of the Mount Pleasant Church's council, and the minister was William Rounseville Alger, cousin of Horatio Alger. The First Church in Roxbury was the church of John Eliot, well-known in American religious history as the apostle to the Indians in the 18th century. The church's minister at the time of this gift was George Putnam, D.D.