Coffee urn

This sumptuous coffee urn was part of a six-piece tea and coffee service presented in 1855 to Col. Richard Borden (1795 – 1874), a Fall River businessman who earned his military rank during the War of 1812. He then began his career as a shipbuilder and founder of the Fall River Iron Works Company, organized in 1821. The company prospered and became the source of capital for the Fall River Steamboat Line, which became possible in 1845 with the establishment of the Old Colony railroad line from Boston to Fall River. Presented in 1855, this coffee urn and its accompanying pieces may have commemorated the date of Borden’s decision to establish the steamship line founded in 1847, which operated, in conjunction with the rail line, between Fall River and New York City until 1937. An elaborate scene of the Taunton River, bustling with steamboats and other water traffic set against the Fall River skyline, is engraved on the back of the urn, opposite the inscription.

John Cann and David Dunn worked with Thomas Charters Jr. as Charters, Cann & Dunn from 1848 to 1854 on Frankfort Street in New York. When Charters departed, Cann and Dunn moved their shop to Jay Street in Brooklyn (see cat. no. 185), where they continued as Cann and Dunn from 1855 to 1857. The earlier firm’s three-part manufacturing logo featured a lion in the left position and the initials “C C & D” and an arm and hammer in the center and right positions. Cann & Dunn may have used the same three-part logo without the first “C” in the center position. The firm operated as a wholesaler specializing in hollowware for the trade. They were a popular source of presentation silver and esteemed for the quality of their work.

This text has been adapted from "Silver of the Americas, 1600-2000," edited by Jeannine Falino and Gerald W.R. Ward, published in 2008 by the MFA. Complete references can be found in that publication.