Kettle on stand

Date1731-1732

Maker George Boothby

MediumSilver (Sterling)

DimensionsOH: 14 3/4"; OL: 9 13/16"; Weight: 97 oz. 18 dwt. 3 1/2 gr.

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1972-246,A-C

DescriptionSilver kettle on stand: Globular body with hinged, inset cover with wooden disk finial affixed with a silver post. Kettle surmounted by a plain, solid c-scroll bail handle with a leather wrap and with an S-shaped fluted silver spout beneath one handle juncture. The body engraved at the shoulder with foliage and with the arms of Boothby impaling Worthington and with Boothby family crest on the proper right side.

The stand with three shell feet supporting broken-scroll legs affixed to a ring to support the kettle. A knuckle hinge with a removable pin with chain attached fastens to kettle beneath the spout. Between the legs, three brackets support a deep hemispherical burned with incurved neck and removable flat lid with central hole for wick.
Label TextThis kettle is one of the finest examples of the globular type. Its bold design is especially well integrated. There is a proper visual relationship between the height and character of the kettle and stand. The strength of its broad body of compressed spherical form is matched by the generous detailing of its other elements, such as the moldings above and the attachments below the large handle pivots and its stocky spout with its forcefully paneled lower sides ending in deep scallops. With its upward-curving shaped rim and its well-articulated legs and feet, the stand both securely receives and supports the kettle. It avoids the compromising features, found in some examples of this type, of an overly mannered handle, a pierced apron, and excessive splay to the legs. The body is hinged below the spout to the stand with a removable pin to permit tilting the body for pouring. The leather wrapping of the handle, as in CWF accession 1962-264, appears to be original. Like accession 1954-570, this kettle is handsomely engraved at the shoulder with a conventional strapwork border incorporating foliated scrolls and masks and arms below. Fashioned for a member of the Boothby family, one wonders whether the client was indeed related to the maker.

The kettle is extraordinarily heavy for its type. Its weight more closely approximates that of pearshaped kettles and stands from earlier in the century. Some of these are even of greater size and weight, such as the 1708/9 example by Lewis Mettayer of London of 128 ounces in the Untermyer collection, the 1709/10 example by Anthony Nelme of London of 118 ounces 14 pennyweight in the Duke of Portland's collection, and the 1713/14 example by Paul de Lamerie of London of 113 ounces in the Farrer collection in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. Henry Wetherburn, the Williamsburg tavern-keeper, owned an immense silver kettle, probably of this earlier type, which was listed in the 1760 inventory of his estate as "1 Tea Kettle 130 [oz.] 4 [dwt] @ 7/6 [£]49.0.7 1/2."

A similar kettle of 1727/28 by Peter Archambo, Sr., of London, reputed to have been part of the furnishings of Tryon Palace, New Bern, North Carolina, is recorded.

InscribedEngraved arms of Boothby impaling Worthington with Boothby family crest
MarkingsFully marked on the underside of kettle and lamp: lion passant on cover of kettle and lamp
ProvenanceSotheby & Co., London (1964; purchased by Thomas Lumley Ltd., London)
Firestone and Parson, Boston, Massachusetts

Exhibition(s)