Images(7)

Sugar Tongs

Dateca. 1820

Marked by Peter Bentzon (ca. 1783 - after 1850)

OriginAmerica, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia or Caribbean, St. Croix

MediumSilver

DimensionsOL: 6 1/8”; OH at grips: 1”

Credit LineMuseum Purchase, Hugh Trumbull Adams Fund

Object number2022-15

DescriptionBow-shaped silver sugar tongs with straight fiddle arms and sharp shoulders above broad shell-shaped grips.
Label TextA free man of color, Peter Bentzon was born about 1783 in the Danish West Indies (now the United States Virgin Islands) to a mother of African and European descent and a Norwegian father. Trained as a silversmith in Philadelphia, he worked both in that city and in St. Croix, moving several times between these locations prior to his death sometime after 1850. Less than three dozen objects are known today bearing his touchmarks.
InscribedEngraved in sprigged script on bow: “BEM” (original) and in later script on arms “E.A.M./-to-/H.E.M.” and “H.E.M./-to-/M.M.J.”
MarkingsMarked once in relief in a rectangle on inside of one arm “P.BENTZON”