Incorrect Username, Email, or Password
This object does not yet have a description.

Gallery 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

The Harvard Art Museums encourage the use of images found on this website for personal, noncommercial use, including educational and scholarly purposes. To request a higher resolution file of this image, please submit an online request.

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

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