2020.200: Sugar Dish
VesselsGallery Text
“Taking tea” in wealthy households across the 18th-century Atlantic World was a daily event that necessitated multiple containers and dishes. This engraved sugar dish was part of an elaborate tea service made for Mary Spratt Provoost (1693–1760), a noted colonial merchant in New York City, and her second husband, lawyer James Alexander (1691–1756). Their shared coat-of-arms forms the embellished monogram on the dish’s side.
The desire for sugar as a sweetener initiated the plantation economies of the Americas. Spratt Provoost’s export business sourced silver plate from the mines at Potosí, in present-day Bolivia, and sugar from Cuba, Jamaica, and Saint-Domingue.
Identification and Creation
- Object Number
- 2020.200
- People
-
Simeon Soumaine, American (London c. 1685 - c. 1750 New York, New York)
- Title
- Sugar Dish
- Classification
- Vessels
- Work Type
- vessel
- Date
- c. 1750
- Places
- Creation Place: North America, United States, New York, New York
- Culture
- American
- Persistent Link
- https://hvrd.art/o/369958
Location
- Location
-
Level 2, Room 2240, European and American Art, 17th–19th century, The Arts in the Eighteenth–Century Atlantic World
View this object's location on our interactive map
Physical Descriptions
- Medium
- Silver
- Dimensions
-
12.1 cm (4 3/4 in.)
120 g - Inscriptions and Marks
-
- maker's mark: under base, stamped: SS [in square punch] [mark of Simeon Soumaine]
- coat of arms: side, engraved: [arms of James Alexander and Mary Spratt]
- monogram: under base, engraved: A. / J. [cinquefoil] M. [monogram of James Alexander and Mary Spratt]
Provenance
- Recorded Ownership History
- James Alexander (1690-1756) and Mary Spratt (1693-1760), New York. [Firestone & Parson, Boston]. [Sotheby's, New York, January 18, 2003, lot 877]. Daniel and Susan Pollack, gift; to Harvard Art Museums, 2020
Acquisition and Rights
- Credit Line
- Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, The Pollack Collection, gift of Daniel A. Pollack AB ’60 and Susan F. Pollack AB ’64
- Accession Year
- 2020
- Object Number
- 2020.200
- Division
- European and American Art
- Contact
- am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
- Permissions
-
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Descriptions
- Description
- Footed "rice-bowl" shape with rococo chasing
Publication History
- Jeanne Sloane, Early American Silver in the collection of Daniel A. Pollack, Privately Published (Boston [?], 2019), cat. no. 12, repr.
Exhibition History
- 32Q: 2240 18th Century, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 02/26/2024 - 01/01/2050
- From the Andes to the Caribbean: American Art from the Spanish Empire, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 03/03/2023 - 07/30/2023
Verification Level
This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of European and American Art at am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu