.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
The monogram TJL is that of Thomas and Jane Lee of Cambridge.
"English Thomas" Lee emigrated to the Colonies as a young man and made his fortune as leading merchant in Boston. After the Revolution, Lee was granted a large loyalist estate in Cambridge, in recognition of the use of his shipping vessels during the War.
This cann, whose whereabouts had been previously unknown, is the mate to a cann in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston illustrated in Kathryn Buhler, American Silver 1655-1825 in the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, 1972, no. 380, p. 429.
The pair of canns is recorded in Revere's Daybooks in June 1787:
...to Thomas Lee...
to pr Wine Qt. Canns wt 36-6 at 7 12-14-
To Making 4- 16-
To Engraving Cyphers 16.
Lee's additional orders from Revere included a set of nine large tablespoons in 1784 and a slop bowl, circa 1785. One cann and the slop bowl entered the MFA collection in 1935, given by Pauline Revere Thayer.
"English Thomas" Lee emigrated to the Colonies as a young man and made his fortune as leading merchant in Boston. After the Revolution, Lee was granted a large loyalist estate in Cambridge, in recognition of the use of his shipping vessels during the War.
This cann, whose whereabouts had been previously unknown, is the mate to a cann in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston illustrated in Kathryn Buhler, American Silver 1655-1825 in the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, 1972, no. 380, p. 429.
The pair of canns is recorded in Revere's Daybooks in June 1787:
...to Thomas Lee...
to pr Wine Qt. Canns wt 36-6 at 7 12-14-
To Making 4- 16-
To Engraving Cyphers 16.
Lee's additional orders from Revere included a set of nine large tablespoons in 1784 and a slop bowl, circa 1785. One cann and the slop bowl entered the MFA collection in 1935, given by Pauline Revere Thayer.