American Silver Fluted Waste Bowl

Object Details

Object Essay

The slop or waste bowl was one of the new forms of American silver to emerge during the Federal period; it was used for dregs from tea cups and teapots and for drips from the spigots of tea urns. Following national independence, the fashion arose for matched tea services, and prosperity brought demands for ever larger sets with more matching pieces. By 1800, the slop bowl had become a standard part of the silver tea equipment.^{1_{A very similar, twelve-sided, pedestal-base slop bowl is part of a service by Joseph Richardson, Jr., now in the Philadelphia Museum of Art (Fales Joseph Richardson and Family, 190, fig. 169).}} Slop bowls were one of the articles specifically advertised by Lownes.^{2_{Pennsylvania Packet, April 9, 1792 (as quoted in Philadelphia: Three Centuries, 187).}}

Jennifer F. Goldsborough

Excerpted from Clement E. Conger, et al. Treasures of State: Fine and Decorative Arts in the Diplomatic Reception Rooms of the U.S. Department of State. New York: H.N. Abrams, 1991.