Gorham 'Medallion' Coin Silver Tea Service, Presented to Alanson Belcher by the New South Society, Boston, c. 1864

This elegant coin silver tea service is a fine example of early holloware by Gorham. In the highly collected 'Medallion' pattern, it features several cast neoclassical cameo medallions applied to the handles and spout.

One side of the tea pot is inscribed:

Presented to
Mr Alanson Belcher
By the Members
of the
New South Society Summer St.
As a token of their grateful appreciation
of his valuable services for Twenty five years as
Leader of the Choir
Boston, Mass. 1864.

Each piece is decorated with medallions which appear attached with cast and applied ribbons and bows.

This wonderful coin silver tea service is marked with Gorham's early coin silver trademark.  The Teapot measures 5.75 inches high, the service weighs 51.2 troy ounces and is in excellent antique condition.

Provenance:

Mr. Alanson Belcher -- Born in Stoughton on August 23, 1810. While very young he became very proficient with the bugle, and his deep bass voice developed in the choir of the First Parish Church. He joined our society in 1829, and later the Old Stoughton Musical, also another in 1833, known as the Psallonian Society, and the Boston Musical Institute in 1838. In 1837 while in a partnership boot business with Newton Talbot, in Boston, he studied voice, and soon was traveling with a group of vocalists giving concerts. For 25 years he was in charge of the music at New South (Unitarian) Society on Church Green, Boston, on the corner of Summer and Bedford Streets. From 1882 to his death on April 13, 1900, he was the efficient and beloved Chorister of our society.
- Quoted from A History of the Stoughton Musical Society ¹

The U.S. Census of 1840 records him living alone in Boston's ward 4, and the 1845 Directory lists his business at 7 Court St. and his home at 4 Chapman Pl., both near Scollay Square (razed in the early 1960's to become Government Center). By 1850 he was living in Stoughton, but continued to work in Boston as a principal in the L & WS Belcher Shoe and Leather Co. at 94 Pearl Street, near Post Office Square today.  He lived in Stoughton with his wife Phoebe and two daughters, the 1890 directory giving his address as 25 Central St.

The New South Society was a Unitarian Congregation that ultimately became part of the Arlington Street Church in Boston's Back Bay.

Many of Alanson Belcher's musical accomplishments are recorded in documents of the Stoughton Musical Society, the oldest choral group in the country tracing traces its roots to 1762.  As a composer, he wrote choral music. He was noted for his exceptional conducting of the 125 anniversary concert on April 11, 1887 and for his conducting part of the society's performance at the Columbian Exhibition of 1893. Not only did he conduct, but he gave an impromptu solo rendition of the "Boston Tea Party" to a full house at the Massachusetts pavilion the next day. "The manner and vigor of the singer and the patriotic spirit of the song will not soon be forgotten by those who were so fortunate as to be present." ²

By descent in the family, who after moving to Texas, married the Clarke family of South Walpole, MA and lived in the c. 1770 Col. Timothy Mann house pictured above.

Our Price: $4,600.00

Item code: I623

Endnotes:

1 Frank W. Reynolds; revised edition of Mary Swan Jones; History of the Musical Society in Stoughton (Stoughton: Privately Printed, no date), p. 21.

2 Old Stoughton Musical Society; The Old Stoughton Musical Society: an historical and informative record of the oldest choral society in America... (Stoughton: Stoughton Printing Company, 1929); p. 78.