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Lot Essay
An identical waiter by Petrie is in the collection of the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts, illustrated in the Museum's 1979 catalogue, p. 59 and in Southern Silver: An Exhibition of Silver made in the South prior to 1860, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 1968, fig. I-16-A.
The MESDA example is also discussed in detail in Brandy S. Culp, "Artisan, Entrepreneur, and Gentleman: Alexander Petrie and the Colonial Charleston Silver Trade," M.A. thesis, Bard Graduate Center, April 2004. It is possible that the present salver is the pair to the MESDA example, as they are identical in size, using identical castings, and both have an engraved crest that has been rubbed. Culp speculates that the crest is a wolf's head, used by Henry Bailey of Edisto Island (d. 1764).
The MESDA example is also discussed in detail in Brandy S. Culp, "Artisan, Entrepreneur, and Gentleman: Alexander Petrie and the Colonial Charleston Silver Trade," M.A. thesis, Bard Graduate Center, April 2004. It is possible that the present salver is the pair to the MESDA example, as they are identical in size, using identical castings, and both have an engraved crest that has been rubbed. Culp speculates that the crest is a wolf's head, used by Henry Bailey of Edisto Island (d. 1764).