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Photo © President and Fellows of Harvard College
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Identification and Creation

Object Number
2016.208
People
Jeremiah Dummer, American (Newbury, MA 1645 - 1718 Boston, MA)
Title
The Francis Skerry Beaker
Classification
Vessels
Work Type
vessel
Date
c. 1670
Places
Creation Place: North America, United States, Massachusetts, Boston
Culture
American
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/349944

Location

Location
Level 2, Room 2340, European and American Art, 17th–19th century, The Silver Cabinet: Art and Ritual, 1600–1850
View this object's location on our interactive map

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Silver
Dimensions
11.4 × 18.4 × 8.5 cm, 0.6 lb. (4 1/2 × 7 1/4 × 3 3/8 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • inscription: on side, engraved: The gift of / Francis Skerry / to the Church / in Salem
  • maker's mark: on side, punched: I D / [fleur-de-lys] [in heart shaped punch]
  • maker's mark: bottom, punched: I D / [fleur-de-lys] [in heart shaped punch]
  • inscription: bottom, red ink: 228.30

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Francis Skerry (c. 1606-1684), gift; to First Church, Salem, sold [through Christie's, New York, January 18, 2007, lot 60]; to Daniel Pollack, gift; to Harvard Art Museums, 2016

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Gift of Daniel A. Pollack and Susan F. Pollack, Harvard Classes of 1960 and 1964
Accession Year
2016
Object Number
2016.208
Division
European and American Art
Contact
am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Descriptions

Description
Cylindrical shaped beaker with “snakeskin matting” or stipple surface on the exterior. 18th-Century mold-strap handles added later.

Publication History

  • Florence Paull Berger and George Munson Curtis, American Church Silver of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries with a Few Pieces of Domestic Plate, exh. cat., Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (Boston, 1911), p. 40, cat. no. 358, repr. as part of plate 10
  • E. Alfred Jones, The Old Silver of American Churches, National Society of Colonial Dames of America (Letchworth, England, 1913), p. 419, repr. as pl. CXX-VII
  • Martha Gandy Fales, Early American Silver for the Cautious Collector, Funk and Wagnalls (New York, NY, 1970), p. 274-275, repr. p. 275 as fig. 221
  • Hermann Frederick Clarke and Henry Wilder Foote, Jeremiah Drummer: Colonial Craftsman and Merchant, 1645-1718, Da Capo Press (New York, 1970), pp. 61, 133
  • Patricia E. Kane, Colonial Massachusetts Silversmiths and Jewelers: A Biographical Dictionary based on the Notes of Francis Hill Bigelow & John Marshall Phillips, Yale University Press (U.S.) (New Haven, CT, 1998), p. 595
  • Early American Silver 1670-1820, Including the Darling Foundation Collection and Silver from the First Church in Salem, auct. cat., Christie's, New York (New York, January 18, 2007), pp.64-65, lot 60, repr. pp. 64-65
  • Laura Turner Igoe, "A Prize of Silver", Index Magazine, Harvard Art Museums ([e-journal], June 22, 2017), http://www.harvardartmuseums.org/article/a-prize-of-silver, repr.
  • "Harvard Art Museums Receive Important Gift of American Silver", Artfixdaily Artwire ([e-journal], March 22, 2022), https://www.artfixdaily.com/artwire/release/6573-harvard-art-museums-receive-important-gift-of-american-silver, accessed March 24, 2022

Exhibition History

  • American Church Silver of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries with a Few Pieces of Domestic Plate, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 07/01/1911 - 12/01/1911
  • 32Q: 2340 Cabinet Gallery, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 11/16/2014 - 09/24/2019; Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 11/25/2019 - 06/02/2025

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Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of European and American Art at am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu