John Burt
Pair of Casters

MakerAmerican, 1692/93–1745/46
CultureAmerican
Titles
  • Pair of Casters
Datec. 1725–1746
Made inBoston, Massachusetts, United States
MediumSilver
DimensionsEach: 5 1/2 × 2 3/16 in. diameter (14 × 5.6 cm)
Credit LineThe Bayou Bend Collection, gift of Miss Ima Hogg
Object numberB.69.97.1,.2
Current Location
Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens
Metals Study Room
Exposé

Explore Further

Department
Bayou Bend
Object Type
Description

Spices accentuated food’s flavor—or disguised it if it was spoiling—and functioned as a preservative.  By the 1650s English silversmiths began to fashion containers to store and to “cast” spices. The earliest casters were cylindrical, followed by pear-shaped and polygonal examples in the eighteenth century. The Burt casters’ vase shape followed, introduced during the 1720s, and persisted until the post-revolutionary period, when a Neoclassical urn shape replaced it.

Technical notes: Both tops are pierced.

Related examples: Other recorded John Burt casters include Buhler and Hood, 1970,  vol. 1, pp. 99–100, no. 113, Spokas et al. 1980, p. 90, no. 104; and one belonging to the MMA (acc. no. 24.109.30).

Book excerpt: David B. Warren, Michael K. Brown, Elizabeth Ann Coleman, and Emily Ballew Neff.  American Decorative Arts and Paintings in the Bayou Bend Collection. Houston: Princeton Univ. Press, 1998.


Provenance[Shreve, Crump & Low, Boston]; purchased by Francis P. Garvan, New York; given to Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut; [James Graham & Sons, New York, c. 1940]; Edward Eastman Minor (d. 1953), Mount Carmel, Connecticut, about 1942; inherited by his daughter Margaret (Mrs. Gregory S. Prince), Chevy Chase, Maryland; purchased by Miss Hogg, 1954; given to MFAH, 1969.
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
Engraved on side: SP[P superscript]D
On neck: mark of John Burt [Buhler and Hood 1970, vol. I, p. 323, nos. 111–15]

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

If you have questions about this work of art or the MFAH Online Collection please contact us.

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