MARK OF BARTHOLOMEW LE ROUX II, NEW YORK, CIRCA 1731

These bowls, engraved Ludlow 1731 beneath a crest, almost certainly commemorate the marriage of William Ludlow (1707-1785) and Mary Duncan (1713/14-1799), who married in 1731. Five silver bowls are cited in an inventory of William Ludlow's possessions. The silver was valued at approximately £150. The silver bowls appear to have descended in the Ludlow-van Buren family until sold by the estate of Maurice Pelham van Buren (1892-1979) in 1987. That auction included the bowls and a silver cruet stand by Myer Myers, now in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (see: Beth Carver Wees, Early American Silver in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2013, pp. 169-171).