Images(5)

Caster

Dateca. 1765

Maker Thomas You (ca. 1730 - 1786)

OriginAmerica, South Carolina, Charleston

MediumSilver

DimensionsOverall: 5 3/8 × 2in. (13.7 × 5.1cm)

Credit LineMuseum Purchase, The Friends of Colonial Williamsburg Collections Fund

Object number2021-8,A&B

DescriptionSilver caster: Cast, stepped circular foot supports raised hemispherical body with incurving, seamed tubular neck and tall, seamed pressure-fit lid with cast and peened bell finial. Lid pierced with circular holes in alternating panels of engraved diapering and stylized foliage.
Label TextThomas You worked at the Sign of the Golden Cup in Charleston, South Carolina, from about 1756 until the late 1780s. He regularly announced in The South-Carolina Gazette that he imported, made, repaired, and polished silver and jewelry. Southern silver fashioned prior to the mid-19th century is rare, and pre-Revolutionary pieces are even more uncommon. Although Thomas You was a prominent craftsman in Charleston for three decades, today only about three dozen objects bearing his mark are known. This circa 1765 pepper caster joins a cann and a creampot, all funded by the Friends of Collections, as examples of silver at Colonial Williamsburg by this important Southern craftsman.
InscribedBase of caster engraved "KB" in threaded block letters.
MarkingsMarked on base in relief "T·Y" in a rectangle.
ProvenanceBrunk Auctions, Asheville, NC