MARK OF BARTHOLOMEW GREEN, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, CIRCA 1725

The engraved initials F/W*E are those of William Foye (1680/81 - 1759) and his wife Elizabeth Campbell (1695 - 1782), who married on 5 April 1716 in Boston. Both natives of Boston, Foye was the son of Captain John Foye and his wife Dorothy. Captain Foye is recorded in the Historical Catalogue of the Old South Church, 1883, p. 338 as having “commanded Vessels in the trade between Boston and Thames.” William served as Treasurer and Receiver-General for the Massachusetts province from 1736 until his death in 1759. Elizabeth Campbell Foye was the daughter of John and Elizabeth Campbell. A portrait by William Badger, circa 1750, of Elizabeth seated near a window and wearing a green dress is in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (Acc. No. 48.1162). Additionally the MFAB holds the portrait of William and Elizabeth’s son, William Foye II (1716 - 1771), also painted by Badger around 1750 (Acc. No. 48.1163).

Bartholomew Green (1697 - c. 1746) was born in Boston, the son of Bartholomew Green (1663 - 1713), a mariner, and Maria Mather Green (1664 - 1746), the daughter of Increase Mather (1639 - 1723). A Puritan pastor president of Harvard College for twenty years, Mather was influential in Massachusetts politics at the time of the Salem Witch Trials. While little has been documented regarding Green's early life and training, it has been suggested that he was apprenticed to Henry Hurst. Works by Green are exceedingly rare. In addition to the present lot, Patricia E. Kane (Colonial Massachusetts Silversmiths and Jewelers, New Haven, 1998, p. 506) only notes two further works which can be attributed to Bartholomew Green: another porringer, and a spout cup in the collection of the Museum of Fine Art, Boston (Acc. No. 20.1844).