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 SMP Silver Salon Forums
 American Silver before sterling
 Francis W. Cooper
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| Author | Topic: Francis W. Cooper |
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Richard Kurtzman Moderator Posts: 768 |
posted 08-03-2005 12:51 PM
  
This Forum has been unusually quiet, so I thought I would post an intersting item of hollowware by the N.Y.C. silvermith Francis W. Cooper. He is noted for the excellence of his ecclesiastical silver and for some reason his secular work is seldom seen. This is a large pitcher, 14" high, with chased cattails and other flowers resting on water - I believe they are lotus blossoms? Flower lovers, please let me know. There is also a crest. If anyone knows its significance, once again please let me know. It probably dates to about 1846 or 1847 and it's an uncommon piece with an uncommon motif especially for this period. IP: Logged |
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doc Posts: 728 |
posted 08-03-2005 01:12 PM
I think the flowers are water lilys, which would go with the water's edge theme of cattails. I reallly lovely piece-I particularly like the spout, but it looks like it would make pouring a bit difficult? Do you have a picture of it from the top-I'd love to see the overall "mouth" configuration. IP: Logged |
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Richard Kurtzman Moderator Posts: 768 |
posted 08-03-2005 02:36 PM
doc, I think you're right about the flowers. I'm always mixing up the two. Below is a photo of the top and actually the form is quite functional - there is no problem pouring. IP: Logged |
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Richard Kurtzman Moderator Posts: 768 |
posted 08-04-2005 11:52 AM
It has been pointed out to me and after a tiny bit of research on my part, that Lotuses are five species of Water Lilies. IP: Logged |
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doc Posts: 728 |
posted 08-04-2005 02:03 PM
Thank you for that angle-from the side shot, the pinched sides look much more pronounced. IP: Logged |
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Brent Posts: 1507 |
posted 08-04-2005 06:56 PM
Any possibility that the chasing was a later enhancement? The acanthus leaves around the foot are appropriate for the period, but the rest looks too "aesthetic" for the 1840's. Brent IP: Logged |
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Richard Kurtzman Moderator Posts: 768 |
posted 08-05-2005 12:21 AM
Brent, Of course anything is possible, and yes it looks "aesthetic", but I believe that the chasing is original. Other smiths did motifs of this kind in this period, though rarely, and below is a Tiffany pitcher dating to 1853 exhibited at the Museum Of Fine Arts, Boston in 1987 with a similar motif. (Subsequent scholarship has shown that J.C. Moore probably did work beyond 1851, so this piece could have been done by him.) IP: Logged |
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Ulysses Dietz Moderator Posts: 1265 |
posted 08-05-2005 09:00 AM
Fascinating. Secular silver by Cooper is rare (actually, all silver by Cooper is rare); there is a great deal of "crypto-aesthetic" style in the naturalism of the 1850s, and the examples you cited are right on the money. There's also a lot of "crypto art nouveau" that crops up in the 1850s and 60s...which only makes you realize that nothing is really new under the sun. Long before cattails and lilies are seen as "Japanese," they are seen as "naturalistic." The Japanese were also deeply involved in the meaning of natural imagery, and thus when their work is exposed to American eyes at the Centennial Exhibition in 1876, Americans begin to see them in a whole new way (of course Tiffany got a head start with its Japanese flatware in 1871 (1873?). IP: Logged |
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Brent Posts: 1507 |
posted 08-08-2005 02:19 PM
Fascinating indeed! You learn something every day. I did a thread a while back in the Tiffany forum about a similar pitcher, marked by Tiffany, Young and Ellis and offered for sale by an auction house. At the time I thought that there had to be something wrong with the picture or the desription in the auction ad, but now I see that I was in the wrong. Thanks for sharing! Brent IP: Logged |
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Ulysses Dietz Moderator Posts: 1265 |
posted 08-10-2005 10:43 AM
FYI, here's a wine flagon made in 1873 by Cooper for a defunct church in Newark, NJ. Just acquired by the Museum, along with a nice matching chalice. IP: Logged |
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ahwt Posts: 2334 |
posted 08-10-2005 11:14 PM
Another Cooper pitcher is shown below. This one was made during the partnership of Cooper and Fisher between 1854 and 1864. Some interesting information about Cooper and the Cooper and Fisher firm is found at this website. click here I was attracted to this pitcher because of the engraving “virtus, nobilitat, omnia” -Virtue ennobles all things. The website below provides some information about the early Herrick family; however I do not know who the original owner of this pitcher was. click here Richard, your pitcher is interesting (as well as beautiful) as it has the manufacturing mark of Cooper as shown in McGrew’s book. The Bust/C/Lion has appeared on silver marked with Beggs & Smith and Palmer & Newcomb. IP: Logged |
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ahwt Posts: 2334 |
posted 08-18-2005 04:33 PM
A internet search search for “Francis w. Cooper coin child's cups” brings up a pair of beautiful coin cups by Cooper. One apparently was spun and the other was hand raised. Any idea as to why the same method was not used to make both. I have assumed that the hand raised method was much more labor intensive and as a result was replaced by the spun method. IP: Logged |
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Ulysses Dietz Moderator Posts: 1265 |
posted 08-19-2005 03:39 PM
It is odd that a virtual pair would be made by different means; but what you may have stumbled onto is the time at which the Cooper shop stopped hand raising and started spinning. Spinning, although a hand process, required new, steam-driven machinery. So perhaps Cooper's shop was small enough in 1863 that he still hand-raised, and by 1866 he had acquired spinning lathes (and, more crucial, workers who could do this--it's a highly skilled task, tho' not so skilled as raising). IP: Logged |
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bascall Posts: 1629 |
posted 10-08-2008 03:56 AM
Just the slightest bit more about Francis W Cooper. Born 5 May 1815 in Verona, New York. Died 6 May 1898 in New York City. IP: Logged |
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bascall Posts: 1629 |
posted 05-21-2010 08:18 AM
Son Francis Jr is listed in the 1860 and 1870 U S Federal Census's as a silversmith and in an 1872 Freedman Bank record with the occupation silversmith working for his father at the corner of Amity and Mac Dougal. [This message has been edited by bascall (edited 05-21-2010).] IP: Logged |
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DB Posts: 252 |
posted 05-21-2010 08:09 PM
The longer I look at this piece the more I am convinced that it has been later decorated and only the acanthus leaf-border on the foot and the one on the rim is original to the piece. The distribution of the pattern is awkward and does not compare with the other posted jug - where there is a sure design concept for the chasing and also integrates the handle. It is only an opinion, but take a second look..... IP: Logged |
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