18th-Century Pieces
Silversmiths have been making presentation pieces from the earliest days of our country, but the Smithsonian Institution has only a few 18th-century pieces in its collection.
The earliest of these is an inlaid silver snuffbox ([fig. 2]) made by William Cario, who worked in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, about 1763. The oval box––evidently a gift to the silversmith’s second wife, Lydia Croxford, whom he married in 1768––has inscribed on its base “The property of Lydia Cario” and “1769.” The cover has an undersurface of horn, and the silver on the outer surface is inlaid with mother-of-pearl and tortoise shell in a filigree pattern.
Many of the earliest pieces of presentation silver were made for use in churches, and they were given by groups as well as by individuals. Representative of this type is a silver alms plate[1] with the following inscription on the rim:
The Gift of the Honble thomas hancock esqr to the church in Brattle Street Boston 1764.
The plate is shallow with a slightly domed center. Engraved on the flat rim, in addition to the inscription, is a crest at the top and the cherub’s head at the bottom. The piece is marked by John Coburn, who lived in Boston from 1725 to 1803. Five trays matching this one are in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.[2]