Ewer

This richly ornamented presentation ewer is a grand statement of the Neoclassical mode in early-nineteenth-century America. The frosty and richly repousséd handle, lip, and body, with its anthemia, scrolled rinceaux decoration, and vigorous gadrooning, are elements derived from the French style. Similar to ambitious examples made in the Philadelphia shop of Fletcher and Gardiner (cat. no. 150), this ewer, marked by Baldwin Gardiner, may have been made by an immigrant craftsman who worked in one of these two shops and had the skills and talent to execute silver in the latest mode.

Baldwin Gardiner was the younger brother of Boston and Philadelphia silversmith Sidney Gardiner. Both men were born in Southold, Long Island, to John Gardiner (1752 – 1823) of that town and Abigail Worth (1760 – 1781) of Nantucket, Massachusetts. Baldwin Gardiner traveled to Boston to apprentice in the shop that his brother operated with Thomas Fletcher; he continued working for them when the firm moved south to Philadelphia in 1811. By 1815 he established a fancy hardware store called Gardiner, Veron & Co. on 98 Chestnut Street. His partner was Lewis Veron (1793 – 1853), a member of the Veron family into which Baldwin Gardiner, his brother Sidney, and Thomas Fletcher married.

Shortly after the death of Sidney Gardiner in 1827, Baldwin Gardiner moved to New York, where he established a furnishings warehouse called B. Gardiner and Co. He sold imported French plateaus, candelabras, and lamps. By 1832 he was operating a steam-driven silver manufactory. However, not all silver marked by Baldwin Gardiner was completed on site. In 1828 he arranged for Fletcher and Gardiner to complete a commission that was to carry his marks, writing, “I should expect to have my name stamped upon the bottoms.” Such information makes it difficult to ascertain the maker of this presentation ewer dated 1833, which is among the most magnificent examples to display the Baldwin Gardiner mark.

The extent to which Gardiner shared craftsmen or patrons with Fletcher and Gardiner is unknown, but the quality of some surviving work, and this ewer in particular, suggests that highly skilled craftsmen may have come to New York through his older brother’s shop or that this commission was carried out by his brother’s company after his death in 1827. The touchmark “G” that appears along with two pseudohallmarks is not fully understood.

Gardiner’s manufactory produced an assortment of flatware including ladles, cheese knives, spoons of varying sizes, and tongs. His mark also appears on a set of knives in the Thread pattern that were also produced by Fletcher and Gardiner. Some larger examples of hollowware also survive, including ewers of similar scale and an elaborate wirework cake or fruit basket. By 1836 Gardiner moved to 39 Nassau, where he sold a variety of domestic ornamental wares, mostly imported from France and England. After a brief period in California in 1848, Gardiner moved to Newark, New Jersey, where he died in 1869.

The presentation of the ewer to Capt. Hartwell Reed, whose “personal Character and Seaman-like abilities” are extolled in the inscription, celebrated the packet ship’s maiden voyage from New Orleans to New York. The Natchez was one of five new vessels built to increase travel between the two cities. The ship arrived in New York on July 5, but the ewer is engraved July 4, perhaps because that was the date it had been expected in port. Such honors paid to ship captains were not uncommon in the early to mid-nineteenth century. Gardiner produced a ewer in 1834 for Capt. George Maxwell, whose ship Europe traveled from Liverpool to New York.

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.

Baldwin GardinerAmerican, 1791-1869Presentation ewerNew York City, 1833SilverGift in honor of Jonathan Fairbanks on the occasion of the silver anniversary of the Department of American Decorative Arts and Sculpture by his many friends and supporters, 1996  1996.240

In gratitude for being safely delivered from New Orleans to New York, the passengers of the packet ship Natchez presented this silver ewer to Captain Hartwell Reed on July 4, 1833, "As a Testimonial of their estimation of his personal character and seaman-like abilities." The ewer bears the mark of Baldwin Gardiner, the keeper of a fashionable furnishings warehouse at 149 Broadway in New York and brother of Sidney Gardiner of the well-known Philadelphia silversmithing firm Fletcher and Gardiner. Modeled after a classical form, richly decorated and finely crafted, the pitcher is an outstanding example of American silver of the late Neoclassical period. Most of the ornament is repoussé, a labor-intensive technique of hammering the silver from the reverse side to raise the design in relief. Only the border around the lip and the central band are die-rolled, a less expensive machine process used to impress patterns into strips of silver that were then soldered into place. Gardiner's silver manufactory was equipped with the latest technology, including high-pressure steam power, yet he must also have employed craftsmen with the creative abilities and handwork skills required to produce a presentation piece of this caliber.This text was adapted from Ward, et al., MFA Highlights: American Decorative Arts & Sculpture (Boston, 2006) available at www.mfashop.com/mfa-publications.html.