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拍品專文
A testament to the mercantile success of its first owner, this punch bowl was probably made for Noreen Drexel's great great- grandfather, Nicholas Brown II (1769-1841), a member of the renowned Brown family of Providence and one of the leading merchants engaged in the China trade. Bearing the monogram, NAB, the initials correspond to those of Nicholas II and his wife, Ann (Carter) (1778-1798), who married in 1791. While the initials also match those of his father, Nicholas I (1729-1791) and his father's second wife, Avis (Binney) (1748-1807), who married in 1785, evidence suggests that the bowl was made after the elder Brown's death in 1791 and in contrast to his son, the elder Brown never directly traded in goods from China. The Brown family began trading with China in 1787, with the sailing of the George Washington, partly owned by Nicholas I's brother, John (1736-1803), but it was not until the 1790s that Providence ships returned from Canton in significant numbers bearing cargoes of tea, silk and china ware. Also, the bowl's pseudo-armorial mantle is virtually identical to that seen on a circa 1800 pair of covered cups made for the Sears family of Boston (Jean McClure Mudge, Chinese Export Porcelain in North America (New York, 1986), p. 202, fig. 320); the 1798 death of Nicholas II's wife indicates that the punch bowl offered here was made slightly earlier, but the similarity of the two designs suggests it was made during the latter part of the decade.
Born into a dynasty that dominated the mercantile life of eighteenth-century Providence, Nicholas Brown II continued his family's business well into the nineteenth. Upon his father's death in 1791, Nicholas II entered into partnership with his future brother-in-law Thomas Poynton Ives (1769-1835), and with the arrival of their vessel, Rising Sun from Canton in 1793, he embarked on a long career trading with the Far East (Robert A. Geake, A History of the Providence River (Charleston, SC, 2013), p. 50). This punch bowl was almost certainly among the furnishings of Nicholas II's magnificent Georgian mansion at 357 Benefit Street in Providence. Purchased by Nicholas II in 1814, the Nightingale-Brown house was occupied by his descendants until 1985, when it was donated to Brown University. After Nicholas II's death in 1841, the business and house was inherited by his son, John Carter Brown (1797-1874), who in 1859 married Sophia Augusta Browne (1825-1909). The latter left a vast estate, the bulk of which was left to her daughter, Sophia Augusta Brown (1867-1942), aka Mrs. William Watts Sherman, and her two granddaughters, Mildred (1888-1961) and Irene Sherman ("Willed Heirlooms to Wealthiest Boy," 13 March 1909, The New York Times). Mildred Sherman, later Lady Camoys, was the mother of Noreen Drexel and presumably inherited the bowl from her mother or grandmother. Other furnishings with similar lines of ownership include two block-and-shell casepieces: the magnificent Nicholas Brown desk-and-bookcase (sold, Christie's, New York, 3 June 1989, lot 100) and a chest-on-chest probably made for Nicholas II, which descended to Noreen's sister and is now at the Cleveland Museum of Art (see The Rhode Island Furniture Archive at the Yale University Art Gallery, RIF1844).
Born into a dynasty that dominated the mercantile life of eighteenth-century Providence, Nicholas Brown II continued his family's business well into the nineteenth. Upon his father's death in 1791, Nicholas II entered into partnership with his future brother-in-law Thomas Poynton Ives (1769-1835), and with the arrival of their vessel, Rising Sun from Canton in 1793, he embarked on a long career trading with the Far East (Robert A. Geake, A History of the Providence River (Charleston, SC, 2013), p. 50). This punch bowl was almost certainly among the furnishings of Nicholas II's magnificent Georgian mansion at 357 Benefit Street in Providence. Purchased by Nicholas II in 1814, the Nightingale-Brown house was occupied by his descendants until 1985, when it was donated to Brown University. After Nicholas II's death in 1841, the business and house was inherited by his son, John Carter Brown (1797-1874), who in 1859 married Sophia Augusta Browne (1825-1909). The latter left a vast estate, the bulk of which was left to her daughter, Sophia Augusta Brown (1867-1942), aka Mrs. William Watts Sherman, and her two granddaughters, Mildred (1888-1961) and Irene Sherman ("Willed Heirlooms to Wealthiest Boy," 13 March 1909, The New York Times). Mildred Sherman, later Lady Camoys, was the mother of Noreen Drexel and presumably inherited the bowl from her mother or grandmother. Other furnishings with similar lines of ownership include two block-and-shell casepieces: the magnificent Nicholas Brown desk-and-bookcase (sold, Christie's, New York, 3 June 1989, lot 100) and a chest-on-chest probably made for Nicholas II, which descended to Noreen's sister and is now at the Cleveland Museum of Art (see The Rhode Island Furniture Archive at the Yale University Art Gallery, RIF1844).