Plate

Date1740-1770

Formerly attributed to Edward Willett

MediumPewter

DimensionsDiam: 9 1/8"; W (rim): 1 3/8"

Credit LineGift of Mr. Charles F. Montgomery

Object number1949-216

DescriptionPlate of circular form; flat inclined rim of moderate width with plain face and singlebead moulding on underside at edge; short concave booge to flat base. Uninscribed as to owner.
Label TextThis plate is one of a very small group of similar examples that bear the cast mark "EW: VIRGINIA" under the rim. These few plates are the only known pieces to carry this mark. In place of a more likely candidate, this mark has long been associated with the pewterer Edward Willett of Upper Marlboro, Maryland. Willett died in 1745, and Laughlin argues cogently that Willett probably did not acquire a new plate mold in his seventies when plates of this type became fashionable. (Laughlin, Pewter in America, III, Pp. 148-150)

Aside from this plate and a similar one with the same mark, a further plate from this group was owned in 1949 by Melville T. Nichols of Medford, Mass. Nichols records that he bought it on November 28, 1940, from M.B. Dean, an antiques dealer from Winchester, Va. and Damariscotta, Me. Dean had purchased it from Mrs. Luther Pannett, widow of the sheriff of Frederick County, Va. These three plates were found within approximately fifty miles of one another, which may be useful to the eventual identification of their maker.

There are scattered references in Virginia documents to pewter plates and dishes of local manufacture. The 1751 will of Edmund Bayley of Accomack Co., dated 1751, contains "1 dozen of Virginia made Pewter plates." The 1776 inventory of the estate of Phillip Ludwell Lee of Stratford, Westmoreland Co. lists "20 old virg'a pewter plates" in the kitchen, along with "2 Doz London Plates shallow, 1 doz. Ditto deep." The "3 do [shallow] Country cast do. [pewter dishes]" are part of the pewter stored in the dairy in the 1781 inventory of the estate of Richard Mitchell of Lancaster Co.

InscribedNo
MarkingsTouch mark "EW:VIRGINIA" cast in the mold on underside of rim (Laughlin 885).
ProvenanceOliver and Marion Deming, Connecticut collectors, acquired this plate and a similar example in Frederick, Maryland, in the 1940s. Charles F. Montgomery of Wallingford, Connecticut purchased this plate from them and gave it to Colonial Williamsburg.