Diplomatic Reception Rooms, U.S. Department of State

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Web Property of the U.S. Department of State

American Silver Bowl

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Object Details

Maker
John Aitken (Silversmith, active 1785-1814)
Date
ca. 1795
Geography
United States: Pennsylvania: Philadelphia
Culture
North American
Medium
metal; silver
Dimensions
Overall: 6 1/8 in x 7 1/2 in; 15.5575 cm x 19.05 cm
Provenance
Ex-collection the donor or her husband
Inscriptions
Erased initials or crest on one side. Marks: In block letters within a rectangular reserve, struck twice on opposite sides of the plinth (both struck upside down), "JAITKEN."
Credit Line
Gift of Dr. and Mrs. Ebenezer Breed
Collection
The Diplomatic Reception Rooms, U.S. Department of State, Washington, D.C.
Accession Number
RR-1972.0077

Object Essay

This bowl is in the form of a neoclassical slop bowl, but it is larger and deeper than the standard tea service piece. It may have been a large slop bowl, a small punch bowl, or a baptismal bowl, or it may have served some other purpose. It is entirely in the Philadelphia manner, with a square plinth supporting a spool-shaped pedestal; the bowl is a hemisphere with an applied molding and beaded rim and a line of fine beading on the lower edge of the pedestal.  

Its maker, John Aitken, had a shop on Chestnut Street between Second and Third Streets in 1793. He advertised as a silversmith, engraver, and music publisher between about 1785 and 1814.1A man of the same name worked in Philadelphia as a successful cabinetmaker at about the same time.In 1793, the two men had shops next door to each other, but the familial relationship of the two craftsmen is unknown. See Philadelphia: Three Centuries, 176.

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.