A FINE SILVER CAKE BASKET

MAKER'S MARK OF FLETCHER & GARDINER, PHILADELPHIA, CIRCA 1814

细节
A FINE SILVER CAKE BASKET
Maker's mark of Fletcher & Gardiner, Philadelphia, circa 1814
Oblong, on four paw feet headed by winged lion joins, the rim applied with a band of foliage enclosing on each side a floral spray, with two cornucopiae handles, the base and one side engraved with inscription, the other side engraved with a coat-of-arms, marked under base
15in. long; 47oz. 10dwt.
来源
Mary Channing Gibbs (d.1824), wife of George Gibbs (1735-1803), prominent merchant and patriot of Rhode Island
Sarah Gibbs (1784-1866), daughter of the above
Governor William Channing Gibbs, brother of the above
Mary Kane Gibbs (1827-1866), daughter of the above, m. George Gibbs on April 11, 1871
Sarah Gibbs, sister of Mary Kane Gibbs, m. Colonel Robert Means Thompson on April 30, 1873
Sarah Thompson (died in 1939), daughter of the above, m. Stephen Hyatt Pelham Pell on April 17, 1901
Stephanie Sarah Pell, grand-daughter of the above, m. Roger Dechame on February 5th, 1945

拍品专文

The inscription under the base reads: "The gift of Mary Gibbs to her daughter S. Gibbs 1814. George & Mary Kane Gibbs. 11th April 1871." and on the side: "S. Gibbs, April 30. 1873. Sarah Gibbs Thompson April 17, 1901. Stephanie Sarah Pell, February 5th 1945."

The arms are those of Gibbs

A distinguished family from Boston and Rhode Island, the Gibbs had many connections to the great artists and intellectuals of their time. George and Mary Channing Gibbs, the original owners of this basket, commissioned furniture from the Goddard/Townsend workshop, and had their portrait painted by Gilbert Stuart. The portrait of George Washington by Stuart that they owned is now at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In 1820, Mary Channing Gibbs commissioned her nephew, Washington Allston, to paint his famous Jeremiah Dictating His Prophecy to the Scribe Baruch, now at Yale University. In 1814, Mary Channing Gibbs's daughter Ruth Gibbs married her cousin William Ellery Channing, founder of the Unitarian Church and Transcendental Movement. The Channings lived with Mary Gibbs and her daughter Sarah in their Beacon Hill townhouse designed by Charles Bulfinch, and in their country estate near Newport. Sarah Gibbs, second owner of the basket, commissioned Allston and the sculptor Horatio Greenough to design a large marble memorial to George and Mary Gibbs at the family chapel in St. Mary's Church, Rhode Island. William Ellery Channing composed the inscription. Sarah Gibbs's own tomb was designed by Richard Morris Hunt. Governor William Channing Gibbs presented the basket to his daughter Mary Kane Gibbs when she married her cousin George Gibbs in 1871. In turn, the basket was presented to Governor Gibbs's youngest daughter, Sarah, when she married Col. Robert Means Thompson in 1873. Thompson was the founder of the International Nickel Comapany as well as the trustee for Prince Louis Battenberg (Mountbatten) and his family. In 1901, Col. and Mrs. Thompson purchased Fort Ticonderoga and the "Pavilion," built by William Ferris Pell in 1824, and the adjoining "King's Garden" from the Pell family and presented both that property and the basket as wedding presents to their daughter Sarah and her husband Stephen Hyatt Pelham Pell. Mr. and Mrs. Pell spent the remainder of their lives restoring the property, finally contributing it to the American public in 1943.