Images(5)

D2012-CMD. Marks on 2012-143,2a. Candlestick

D2012-CMD. Detail of 2012-143,1a. Candlestick

D2012-CMD. Marks on 2012-143,1b. Candlestick

Pair of Candlesticks

Date1815

Maker Andrew Ellicott Warner (1786-1870)

OriginAmerica, Maryland, Baltimore

MediumSilver

DimensionsHeight: 9 1/2"

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number2012-143,1&2

DescriptionPair of candlesticks with stepped, rounded rectangular bases, baluster-shaped shafts, and rounded-rectangular candle cups with bulbous bases. Conforming rounded-rectangular bobeches have gadrooned edges. Gadrooned bands also at top and bottom of baluster shafts.
Label TextPre-1840 American silver candlesticks are extremely rare. This pair was made in 1815 by Andrew Ellicott Warner, a leading Maryland silver producer during the early years of the nineteenth century. The rectangular bases, restrained gadrooned borders, and baluster-shaped shafts of these candlesticks are patterned after Sheffield plate examples. One candlestick is engraved "F. Smith," for Francis Smith (1775-1844) of Abingdon, Virginia, who married Mary Trigg (1781-1839) on March 4, 1811.
InscribedUpper base of candlestick #1 engraved "F. Smith" in sprigged script.
MarkingsMarked in relief on edge of both candlestick bases:
1) "A.E.W" in a rectangle for Andrew Ellicott Warner
2) a clipped-corner rectangular shield mark for Baltimore
3) the dominical letter "A" in a clipped-corner rectangle for 1815.

The bobeche for candlestick # 1 is also struck with the same marks plus the eagle's head mark in an oval used by Thomas Warner as assay master.
ProvenanceOriginally owned by Francis Smith (1775-1844) of Abingdon, Virginia, by decent though his daughter Mary Francis Trigg Smith (1812-1890). Sold at Northeast Auctions, Portsmouth, NH, Annual Summer Americana Auction, lot # 505, August 2, 2009.

Similar chain of decent to the pair now at Bayou Bend (B.2022.6); Francis Smith and Mary Trigg (1781–1839) to their daughter Mary Frances Trigg Smith (1812–1890) to Catherine Markham Robertson (1803–1888), to Harriet White
G. Chinn (1945–2021). Sold as part of the estate of Harriet White G. Chinn, Brunk Auctions, Asheville, North Carolina, February 5, 2022, lot 773.

Exhibition(s)