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Lot Essay
The arms and monogram I*H G are those of Joshua Green of Boston and his wife Hannah (Storer) Green, first cousin of the silversmith, Joseph Edwards. The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston retains Joseph Edwards's bill of sale for an order of silver by Joshua Green, including this cann and its mate, described as follows:
1765 £ s d
May 18 To 2 Silver Canns - - - - - - - - - - - - 11:18:10
[ . . .] To [Engraving] 2 Coats of Arms - - - - - - 0:18:8
The identical matching cann is in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, a bequest of descendant Samuel A. Green, illustrated in Katherine Buhler, op. cit., fig. 424.
The engraved coat-of-arms and cartouche on this cann may be confidently attributed to Nathaniel Hurd, highly accomplished engraver of Boston. An engraved cartouche of the same design and in the same hand on a tankard by Benjamin Burt is documented in a letter to the silversmith from the patron, Moses Brown of Rhode Island. Brown requested that the coat-of-arms on his tankard be "the same as that Mr. N. Hurd Ingrav'd on a Seal for me Some time past. That ye arms be adorn'd in ye most beautiful & best manner . . . ." (as quoted in David B. Warren, et al., Marks of Achievement, 1987, p. 71; tankard illustrated as figs. 74 and 75).
CAPTION: Joseph Edwards's Bill of Sale to Joshua Green, 1765, including the present lot Courtesy of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
1765 £ s d
May 18 To 2 Silver Canns - - - - - - - - - - - - 11:18:10
[ . . .] To [Engraving] 2 Coats of Arms - - - - - - 0:18:8
The identical matching cann is in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, a bequest of descendant Samuel A. Green, illustrated in Katherine Buhler, op. cit., fig. 424.
The engraved coat-of-arms and cartouche on this cann may be confidently attributed to Nathaniel Hurd, highly accomplished engraver of Boston. An engraved cartouche of the same design and in the same hand on a tankard by Benjamin Burt is documented in a letter to the silversmith from the patron, Moses Brown of Rhode Island. Brown requested that the coat-of-arms on his tankard be "the same as that Mr. N. Hurd Ingrav'd on a Seal for me Some time past. That ye arms be adorn'd in ye most beautiful & best manner . . . ." (as quoted in David B. Warren, et al., Marks of Achievement, 1987, p. 71; tankard illustrated as figs. 74 and 75).
CAPTION: Joseph Edwards's Bill of Sale to Joshua Green, 1765, including the present lot Courtesy of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston