Images(2)

The Boston Mace

Gabriel Sleath (1674–1756)

1727

Medium/TechniqueSilver, with internal wooden shaft

DimensionsDiameter and length: 7.9 x 37.8 cm (3 1/8 x 14 7/8 in.)
Weight: 16 oz.

Credit LineMary S. and Edward J. Holmes Fund

Accession number2017.1

On View

On view

ClassificationsSilver hollowware

Collections

Europe

Description

This ceremonial staff was a symbol of the mayor’s authority in the town of Boston, in Lincolnshire, England. It would have been present when civic business was conducted. The seal of the king (George I) is at the top, surrounded by emblems of England (Tudor rose), Scotland (thistle), Ireland (harp), and France (fleur-de-lys). The name of the mayor in 1727, Samuel Abbott, is engraved on the end of the handle. The town sold the mace in 1837, after Parliament passed legislation to make local governments “more useful and efficient.”

InscriptionsThe end of the terminal is engraved, "Sam. Abbott Gent. Mayor 1727"Provenance1727, commissioned by the town of Boston, Lincolnshire, England; June 1, 1837, Boston Corporation Plate sale, through George Miller, at the Guildhall, Boston, England, lot 67, to Richard Connington, Boston; by descent to his widow; December 6, 1906, consigned by the estate of Mrs. Richard Connington, Christie’s, London, lot 93, sold for £400 to Crichton Bros., London; between 1906 and 1913, sold by Crichton Bros. to Caroline Wadleigh (Mrs. Washington B.) Thomas (b. 1861 - d. 1939), Boston, MA; 1913 until 1916, on loan from Mrs. Thomas to the MFA [see note 1]. November 30, 1934, sold, probably by Mrs. Thomas, through Louis Joseph Auction Galleries, Boston, to William Randolph Hearst (b. 1863 – d. 1951), New York; April 30, 1941, William Randolph Hearst sale, Hammer Galleries at Gimbel Bros., New York, lot 1167-1 [see note 2], probably sold to Irwin Untermyer (b. 1886 – d. 1973), New York [see note 3]; around 1968, given by Untermyer to Robert S. Pirie (b. 1934 – d. 2015), New York; sold by the heirs of Robert S. Pirie to S. J. Shrubsole (dealer), New York; 2017, sold by S. J. Shrubsole to the MFA. (Accession Date: January 18, 2017)

NOTES:
[1] Loan no. 989.13. [2] The mace is mentioned by A. J. Liebling, “Hearst with his own Petard,” The New Yorker, November 19, 1938, p. 40, among the objects that would be sold from the Hearst collection. MFA curator Georg Swarzenski was photographed holding the mace in 1941 at the Hearst sale held at Gimbel Bros., New York. It is described in the 1941 Hearst catalogue as “a Town Mace, ca 1714” under English silver and gold. [3] Irwin Untermyer bought other pieces of silver at the Hearst auctions, and probably acquired the mace when it was sold in 1941. See Yvonne Hackenbroch, English and Other Silver in the Irwin Untermyer Collection (New York, 1963), cat. 87.