The earliest tongs date from late-seventeenth-century England. Their close affinity with the fire tongs has encouraged speculation that a toy pair was adapted for the purpose. By the eighteenth century a spring bow replaced the spring hinge, and scissor-type tongs, such as this pair, were the result. While English-made tongs were imported and retailed, American silversmiths’ accounts attest that they also produced them in quantity. The earliest American examples of this type date from the second quarter of the eighteenth century. Both Joseph Richardson’s and Paul Revere, Jr’s accounts used the terms “sugar tongs” and “tea tongs” interchangeably, although the former is more prevalent.

Related examples: Previously these tongs were attributed to John Coburn, since Enoch Freeman is known to have patronized his shop. No examples of this type marked by his shop are known, although another pair are attributed, in Buhler 1972, vol. 1, p. 315, no. 271. Frequently individuals patronized more than one shop, which complicates making an attribution based merely on provenance.

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.