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Creampot

Benjamin Burt American
1763
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 750
This charming creampot with elongated scalloped lip and vigorous scrolled handle resembles numerous examples of the form dating from the middle decades of the eighteenth century. Its three cast, pad feet convey a subtle suggestion of movement. This particular example is beautifully engraved with the arms of Brown for the Providence, Rhode Island, merchant Moses Brown (1738–1836) and his wife Anna (1744–1773), set within an elegant asymmetrical cartouche, and clearly the work of an experienced engraver.

Surviving correspondence between Moses Brown and the silversmith Benjamin Burt, documents that the engraving was executed by Nathaniel Hurd, another Boston silversmith best known as an engraver, to whom Burt outsourced the engraving. Prior to her January 1764 wedding, Anna had received a munificent bequest from her father, Obadiah Brown (also Moses’s uncle), which enabled her to purchase a handsome array of wedding silver, including this creampot.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Creampot
  • Maker: Benjamin Burt (American, Boston, Massachusetts 1729–1805 Boston, Massachusetts)
  • Date: 1763
  • Geography: Made in Boston, Massachusetts, United States
  • Culture: American
  • Medium: Silver
  • Dimensions: 3 3/4 x 3 7/8 in. (9.5 x 9.8 cm); 3 oz. 2 dwt. (96.7 g)
  • Credit Line: Bequest of Alphonso T. Clearwater, 1933
  • Object Number: 33.120.295
  • Curatorial Department: The American Wing

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