Five-piece Tea Set

Ripened produce fresh from the kitchen garden might have inspired the organic forms of this lavish tea service. Like bedding plants laid out in an orderly pattern, scrolls, foliage, and flowers embellish the lobes of the gourd-shaped vessels. Handles formed of twining grapevines and leafy bracket feet continue the playful conceit, which is completed by a plump melon finial atop the domed cover. Form and ornament combine to create a rich display of glittering silver likely intended for a dark walnut or mahogany sideboard. A number of firms may have produced this version of the Rococo-revival-style tea set. Several are known that either appear to be identical to this set or vary only in their finials, feet, or other details. Only one other bears the mark of Charters, Cann & Dunn.

In 1839 New York City’s Marquand & Co. was reorganized by its former partners, Henry Ball, Erastus O. Tompkins, William Black, and J. D. Williams, and renamed Ball, Tomkins & Black. The firm was the nation’s most prestigious retailer of silverware and jewelry at the time this tea service was produced. The firm of Charters, Cann & Dunn served as wholesalers to the trade in New York from 1848 to 1854 and were one of Ball, Tompkins & Black’s many suppliers. Known for the quality of their work, the firm specialized in hollowware and presentation silver.

The Charters, Cann & Dunn manufact0ry was located at “rear 53 Mercer” through 1853 and, later, at 89 Mercer Street before relocating in 1854 to Frankfort Street. Charters left the firm in 1854, and the 1855 – 56 New York City directory listed Cann and Dunn at 144 & 146 Jay Street, Brooklyn (see cat. no. 182).

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.