posted 11-22-2001 12:12 PM              

See also in the New Members' Forum Favorite pieces

posted 11-22-2001 01:33 PM            

After hard thought and even though my interest is in American coin silver, I think I would have to choose this Irish Master Mason's Jewel. It was made for Lodge No 6, Dublin and is dated 1765, the second oldest known according to the Royal Irish Masonic Museum. It has no hallmarks and the maker is unknown, which is not surprising as the Dublin guild of the time was controlled by Catholics and membership or association with anything Masonic was an excommunicable offense. The small initials B and G are presumed to be those of the Master Mason for whom it was made.

The design of the jewel is brilliantly conceived and chock-a-block with mystic imagery, masterfully engraved. I think it a real joy.

posted 11-25-2001 09:06 PM            

The pattern is Bug by Durgin. There are 24 insects on the handle, plus the snake.

Scott--you should post images of some of your whatzits; they sound intriguing.

posted 11-26-2001 08:50 PM            

OK, I guess I had better contribute something. Here....

posted 12-01-2001 10:00 PM            

The ID maker's mark is attributed by Hamilton to John David, Sr. of Philadelphia. He is known to have produced large quantities of trade silver. Early silversmiths often had a small initial punch for jewelry, and the jewelry mark did not always resemble that used for larger objects.

I would love to think this might be by Jeremiah Dummer, who also made trade silver. The brooch did turn up in New England, so you never know. For the time being, though, I am sticking with the John David attribution.

You may wonder how such a brooch might have been worn. Here's how, but it only works on loosely woven garment like a sweater. What you do is lay the brooch flat against your garment. Reach through the lower hole of the brooch, pinch a piece of fabric and pull it out through the hole. When you have enough fabric pulled through, you can slide the tip of the pin into the fabric and release the fabric. The pin will slide through the piched bit and the tension of the fabric will hold the pin againt the other side of the brooch. It is actually very secure!

posted 12-17-2001 08:48 PM            

Like wev, my favorite piece of silver is actually something outside my main collecting area (French silver). I'm a sucker for interesting old inscriptions. A few months ago, I bought a large English lidded tankard by Thomas Farren, hallmarked for London, 1722-3, with this contemporary presentation on it:

"The Gift of ye Owners of ye Mary & Mariane
To Drink Prosperity to North Carolina"

The Mary and Mariane are clearly the names of ships that were sailing to the Colonies; I've been trying to pin them down. I hope -- perhaps a bit fancifully -- that the tankard may relate to the 1723 departure from London to North Carolina of a royal governor named George Burrington. In fact, under the inscription is a large initial B. (Burrington was quite a colorful figure, too - fought duels, drank too much, molested female colonists, and was finally driven from the colony in disgrace. He also, intriguingly, complained to the Crown that his salary was so low that he had to sell off his plate to support himself.)

But any case, the tankard evokes for me a time when the American colonies were barely more than a wilderness: North Carolina in the 1720s was still just a handful of Englishmen and Africans in a few scattered villages and plantations. And I like to picture this handsome piece of Georgian silver crossing the ocean in the creaking hold of a ship (the Mary or Mariane?) -- a relic of European gentility, and an emblem of the colonists' hopes for their new land.

It's in somewhat battered condition now, which for me actually adds to its charm. The silver peg holding the lid on was replaced sometime long ago by one of handwrought iron -- you can imagine the tankard getting lots of hard use for generations on some remote plantation, where there was no silversmith nearby to repair it when the lid went clattering off amidst an especially enthusiastic drinking bout.

posted 12-11-2003 11:54 PM            

Two years have now passed since you posted your ship query here and on a genealogical site (NCRoots) - with no solution either here or there. Assuming you still own the tankard, have you ever suceeded in tracing the ship?

I say "the ship" since I believe it was one ship named after two women, possibly the wives of the ship owners. I have looked through a couple of ship lists from the period and found a number of ships bearing two names.

In addition "ye" is really a common mistranscription of the original old script form for "the," in which the "th" combination looked like a "y," so the inscription should actually be read "the Mary and Mariane."

Lists of immigrants often include the ships on which they arrived. The lists I examined are of immigrants to Pennsylvania arriving at the port of Piladelphia. If you can find nothing for arrivals in North Carolina directly, you might try to find a list of immigrants to Charleston, which was a major port in Colonial times. Failing that, English ship registries should include it.

posted 12-15-2003 08:47 AM            

I have two favorites-one sterling and one silver plated. My sterling piece is a small Irish ewer made by Samuel Neville with angels and cherubs chased on the side.

In stark contrast, my favorite silver plated piece is a spooner by Reed & Barton with a menacing large horned devil and large flower pattern-odd but compelling!

posted 12-28-2003 08:14 AM            

I'm glad you asked. Actually, yes, I have pinned down the ship (no thanks to those web queries) -- and I have a pretty good guess about the identity of the tankard's original owner. It's not who I'd thought it was, but it's still quite an interesting provenance.

Through documents I found in the British Public Record Office and in the North Carolina State Archives, I traced the Mary & Mariane as a brig out of Edenton that was chartered by the Royal Navy to bring arms and ammunition from London to the colony in 1739-40, when it was threatened by the Spanish during the charmingly-named War of Jenkins' Ear. Her captain for the transatlantic voyage (whose initials I believe are those inscribed mirror-style on my tankard's lid) was a Royal Navy commander named John Campbell. Campbell seems to have enjoyed his visit to America, for by 1743 he had returned to settle permanently in North Carolina, founding the town of Colerain in Chowan County near Edenton. As a planter and shipowner, Capt. Campbell became one of the wealthiest men in the colony, known as "the Merchant Prince of Lazy Hill" after the name of his plantation. He served as speaker of the NC General Assembly, became a zealous patriot during the Revolution, and was a signer of the New Bern Declaration. He died in 1780.

The documents I found suggest that Campbell had some trouble in London getting the Lords of Admiralty to pay for the charter of the Mary & Mariane. Assuming he eventually succeeded, this may explain why the grateful shipowners rewarded him with this tankard when, shortly thereafter, he decided to return permanently to America.

Campbell's involvement in the recent military mission would also help explain the patriotic nature of the inscription.

The initial "B" under the inscription on the body was probably added a bit later, perhaps for a member of the Brownrigg family, who inherited much of Campbell's estate through his daughter.

posted 12-28-2003 01:09 PM            

That is indeed great news! The only thing I can imagine more satisfying than even finding such a piece in the first place, is being able to trace its origin, significance, ownership, and to find that the probable owner was so prominent a figure in his own time. A nice piece of history, to be sure. Have you drunk a toast from it yet?

Thanks for sharing!

posted 12-28-2003 05:50 PM            

Now I have to figure out what to do, if anything about restoring it. Not sure if you can tell from the pics, but it's in rough shape. I haven't even polished it since I bought it; part of me thinks I should leave it as I found it.

Last summer I happened to be traveling near Edenton and visited the town that Campbell founded, which was quite interesting.

What about your tankard? What is the inscription on it? Maybe someone on these forums will have a suggestion.

posted 12-28-2003 07:11 PM            

See also in the New Members' Forum Favorite pieces