After the ratification of the U. S. Constitution many artisanal groups founded their own guilds. One such group was the Pewterers’ Society in New York City. It was so important that it marched with its banner emblazoned with the motto “Solid and Pure” in the parade that celebrated the ratification of the Federal Constitution in New York State in 1788. For this event, the pewterer George Coldwell created unique spoons decorated with a simulated bright-cut engraving, framing a bald eagle grasping an arrow and an olive branch with its talons and stamped “Liberty,” “Peace,” and “Federal Constitution.” On the back of the handle he stamped his maker’s mark. He was also known to have produced a second design stamped “Peace and Amity” below a liberty cap on a pole flanked by American flags.

Despite the newly founded society, the number of pewterers in New York dwindled thereafter, almost certainly because of the importation and popularity of ceramics and the sale of pewter by neighboring states including Connecticut. The New York craftsmen who continued focused mainly on flatware. Prior to 1800, most Americans used spoons, the fork and the knife being the exception rather than the rule. Even so, few pewter spoons have survived; largely because they were easily broken and melted down to make other pewter objects.

Coldwell was one of at least eight pewterers listed in the New York City directories between 1800 and 1822. According to an advertisement in the New York Daily Advertiser in 1794, he supplied “elegantly ornamented” “desert (sic) spoons and teaspoons,” and in the city directories he was sometimes referred to as a pewterer, but more often as a “pewter, spoon, and candle mold mnfr.”

Related examples: Colonial Williamsburg, Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Winterthur Museum.