Sugar Dish

Public Domain

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Maker Paul Revere, Jr.(American, 1734–1818)American, 1734–1818

CultureAmerican

Titles

Sugar Dish

Datec. 1755–1775

Made inBoston, Massachusetts, United States

MediumSilver

Dimensions6 1/8 × 3 5/16 in. diameter (15.5 × 8.4 cm)

Credit LineThe Bayou Bend Collection, gift of Miss Ima Hogg

Object numberB.69.109.A,.B

Current Location

Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens

Metals Study Room

Exposé

Explore Further

Department

Bayou Bend

Object Type

METALWORK

DescriptionBoth the body and the lid of this sugar dish exhibit the double-swelled form characteristic of the rococo style, but except for the lid’s finial, it is without surface ornamentation. The mottled color of the surface is called fire scale, which results from repeated heating of the silver to make it more malleable as the silversmith hammers out the form. Heating the silver accelerates oxidation, darkening the surface. A dip in an acid bath, called “pickling,” removed the appearance of fire scale by differentially attacking copper, the component in the silver alloy that oxidizes and darkens the surface. Pickling left a thin layer of nearly pure silver on the surface, which later polishing would eventually remove, again revealing the firescale.
ProvenanceProbably made for Lucretia Greene (Mrs. John Callahan, 1748–1824, m. 1774), Boston; inherited by her daughter Mary Callahan (1776–1855); inherited by her niece Mary Timmins Quincy Hill (Mrs. Benjamin Pollard Winslow, 1813–1902); inherited by her son Alfred Erving Winslow (1839–1922); inherited by his son Dr. Charles Edward Amory Winslow (1877–1957); Anne R. Winslow (Mrs. Charles Winslow, 1876–1963), New Haven, Connecticut; purchased by Miss Ima Hogg, 1956; given to MFAH, 1969.
Exhibition History"Women Shaping Texas," The Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum, Austin, Texas, December 8, 2012–May 19, 2013.
Published References Phillips, John Marshall. Masterpieces of New England Silver 1650−1800. New Haven: Gallery of Fine Arts, Yale University; 1939, p. 72; Warren, David B. "A Great Texas Collection of Americana: The Bayou Bend Collection at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston." The Connoisseur 178 (September 1971), p. 53, no. 27; Warren, David B. Bayou Bend: American Furniture, Paintings and Silver from the Bayou Bend Collection. Houston: Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Boston: New York Graphic Society, 1975, p. 166, no. 317; Kane, Patricia E., ed. Colonial Massachusetts Silversmiths and Jewelers: A Biographical Dictionary Based on the Notes of Francis Hill Bigelow and John Marshall Phillips. New Haven: Yale University Art Gallery, 1998, p. 826. Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks

Engraved on side: M.C. to M.T.Q.H [Mary Callahan to Mary Timmins Quincy Hill] [added later]
Engraved beneath bowl: 13 oz, 12 dwt

Underneath body: mark of Paul Revere, Jr. [Buhler and Hood 1970, vol. I, p. 330, nos. 238–40, 243–47, 252–54]

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

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