A RARE AND IMPORTANT SILVER TAZZA

MAKER'S MARK OF HENRY PRATT, PHILADELPHIA, CIRCA 1730

Details

A RARE AND IMPORTANT SILVER TAZZA
Maker's Mark of Henry Pratt, Philadelphia, circa 1730
Circular, with molded rim, on a spreading stepped trumpet foot, the field engraved with the Maddox arms within an elaborate baroque cartouche with figures of leopards, birds, and a portrait mask with scrolling foliage and fishscale, surrmounted by the Maddox crest, and above script monogram EBW, the reverse engraved M over IM, and later with the monogram L.C.B., also with scratchweight 16oz.=13=0; marked on field
8in. diameter; 3in. high; 15oz. 10dwt.

Provenance

Joshua Maddox (1687-1759) of Philadelphia, married to Mary Gateaux in 1725.
Mary (Maddox) Wallace (1732-1784), daughter, of Somerset County, New Jersey
Joshua Maddox Wallace, Jr. (1752-1819), son
Joshua Maddox Wallace, M.D. (1815-1851), son; thence by descent to Mrs. Arthur K. Peck, Sr.

Literature

Philadelphia Silver, 1682-1800, The Philadelphia Museum Bulletin, Vol. LI, No. 249, Spring 1956, illus. 317.

Exhibited

Philadelphia Museum of Art, "Philadelphia Silver," April 14-May 27, 1956, lent by Mrs. Arthur K. Peck, Sr.

Lot Essay

Joshua Maddox's estate inventory lists 200 ounces of silver, an exceptionally large amount of silver for the period. In addition to this tazza, three other of Maddox's pieces survive, all with the same coat-of-arms. These include a tankard by Philip Syng at Yale, engraved with a coat-of-arms in a similarly elaborate cartouche with animals and a portrait mask below, a caster by Simeon Soumaine also at Yale, and a cann by Philip Syng, exhibited at the Philadelphia Museum in 1956 (cat. no. 500). There are also two porringers by Johannis Nys engraved with Mary Gateaux's monogram and apparently part of her wedding silver; one is at Yale and the other was in the 1956 exhibition (cat. no. 294).
Joshua Maddox served as a Provincial Judge from 1741-1759 and a founding trustee of the University of Pennsylvania (see Buhler & Hood, American Silver . . . in the Yale University Art Gallery, 1970, pp.179-180).