Images(17)

Hot water urn

Dateca. 1800

OriginEngland, Birmingham or Sheffield

MediumFused silverplate (Sheffield Plate); ivory

DimensionsOH: 23 1/2"; OW (across handles): 12 1/8"

Credit LineGift of Mrs. Eugene B. Simonin

Object number1973-371,A-C

DescriptionFused silverplate hot water urn: Four ball feet support a serpentine-sided square base beneath an urn-shaped body on a spool-shaped pedestal. Two high curved handles flank a gadroon-ornamented spigot with an ivory finial. Tall stepped coverer surmounted by a ball finial. Cover, body, and base with ornamented with gadrooning; body with chased swags, and square base with rams' heads, drapery, and a Greek key border.

Note: Urn dissassembles into three components: base, body, and lid. The iron heating element does not survive with this object.

Label TextBy the turn of the century, hot water urns for use in preparing tea had become among the largest and most prevalent forms of Sheffield plate or fused silverplate made in the English production centers of Sheffield and Birmingham. More richly embellished than most examples, this neoclassical urn is chased with gadrooning, swags, and rams’ heads—design elements adopted by architects, furniture makers, and metalsmiths alike to reflect the popular Adam style. Not surprisingly, fused silverplated items were enthusiastically embraced in early America, but few pieces survive with histories of ownership. This example has a tradition of descent in the Carter, Stanard, Nicholas, Buffington, and Simonin families of Virginia.
InscribedEngraved in the twentieth century on body above spigot with the coat of arms and crest of the Carter family of Virginia. Motto: PURUS SCELERIS and beneath in a second banner: CARTER OF COROTOMAN
ProvenanceEx Coll: Mrs. Eugene B. Simonin, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania