The Silversmith in Eighteenth-Century Williamsburg: An Account of His Life & Times, & of His Craft — John Shaqi
The Silversmith in Eighteenth-Century Williamsburg: An Account of His Life & Times, & of His CraftFord, Thomas K.
History
The Silversmith in Eighteenth-Century Williamsburg: An Account of His Life & Times, & of His Craft
Ford, Thomas K.
Silverwork, Colonial -- Virginia
After two postponements, probably in order to sell every last ticket,
the drawing took place “at the Capitol.” This doubtless meant on the
steps or portico or in the yard, rather than within the building itself.
The outcome was recorded in a single sentence in the _Gazette_:
“Yesterday Mr. Kerr’s lottery of Jewels and Plate was drawn; and the
highest Prize came up in Favour of Mrs. Dawson.”
Kerr’s long list of prizes—and the items listed for sale in
advertisements of other eighteenth-century Williamsburg
silversmiths—reveal that the articles these smiths made in their shops,
like the ones they imported, were of great variety but mostly of small
size. Besides the silver buckles, sugar tongs, teaspoons, toothpick
cases, and snuff boxes of the lottery list, other silversmiths
advertised thimbles, soup and punch ladles, salt casters or shakers,
watch chains, cream buckets or “piggins,” and plated as well as solid
silver spurs. Among these, the soup ladles were the largest items.
If Williamsburg smiths made larger items on special order as they may
have, no such pieces have survived, nor has any mention of them been
found in shop records. Custom-made articles would not have been
advertised, of course.
_SILVERSMITHS AND GOLDSMITHS, BLACKSMITHS AND DENTISTS_
Patrick Beech, as his advertisement suggested, was obviously a jeweler
as well as a Silversmith. James Craig of the Golden Ball, who made a
pair of earrings for Washington’s beloved stepdaughter, Patsy Custis,
was primarily a jeweler rather than a Silversmith. James Geddy, Jr.,
combined the cleaning and repairing of watches and clocks with
silver- and goldsmithing. John and William Rowsay, brothers and partners
in a Williamsburg shop, sold not only plate and precious stones, but a
wide assortment of general merchandise, to wit:
[Illustration: _Advertisement appearing in Dixon and Nicholson’s
VIRGINIA GAZETTE on October 16, 1779._]
_Just imported and to be sold by the subscribers in_ Williamsburg,
A NEAT assortment of cutlery, pinchbeck shoe and stock buckles, plated
do. watch chains seals and keys, paper snuff-boxes, playing cards,
pins and needles, ivory combs, linen, muslins, cap lace, corded
dimity, ginghams, calicoes, silk and thread flockings, bohea tea,
_&c._ Also a few hogsheads of good RUM, by the hogshead or quarter
cask. (1)
JOHN & WILLIAM ROWSAY.
This versatility of crafts was almost universal among colonial
silversmiths, especially in the southern colonies. Not one of the
Williamsburg smiths limited himself rigidly to the making and selling of
silver and gold articles. Any who tried would probably not have enjoyed
a large income in this essentially small town in an essentially rural
colony.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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