This striking sugar bowl is elaborately decorated with wonderful foliate and exotic chinoiserie repousse.  The landscape designs depict various pagoda structures and figures traveling in boats. An unusual design of a grapevine decorates the uppermost section of the body from which the exceptionally cast grapevine handles attach.  The round, pedestal foot is decorated with floral repousse above a dot-punched design.  On one side the cartouche is engraved with the arms of Thomas Swann and the removable lid is surmounted by a lovely figural swan finial. 

Thomas Swann (1809-1883) was an important politician serving as Mayor of Baltimore from 1856-60, Governor of Maryland from 1866-69 and U. S. Representative from 1869-79.  On May 20, 1834, he married Elizabeth Gilmor Sherlock a member of the Gilmor family, the richest family in Baltimore in the early 19th century.  

The Swann family owned a large estate, Morven, near Leesburg, VA.  After the death of his father in 1840, Swann took an active role in the management of the estate and in 1858, Swann engaged English-born Baltimore architect Edmund G. Lind (who did Baltimore’s Peabody Conservatory) to renovate it in the current classical (we would call it Italianate) taste.  See an image of Lind’s classical plan here.  This sugar bowl certainly spent some of it’s time there.

Samuel Kirk was an important Baltimore silversmith who is responsible for popularizing this style of repousse silver in 19th century America.  It became his trademark and ultimately it was known throughout the country as ‘Maryland’ silver.  (In fact we have seen records in the Tiffany archives where, in the 1880’s, they record making pieces in the ‘Maryland’ style.) 

Kirk was also a successful businessman.  In part, because he used standard sheet silver to create his pieces and thereby kept his costs low.  This sugar bowl is one of the heaviest pieces of Kirk we’ve had and clearly a custom order from very rich patrons.  It has descended in the family.

This wonderful sugar bowl is double stamped underneath ‘S. KIRK’ in rectangular punches with ‘11’ in square punches.  It measures 8.75 inches high and 8.5 inches across the handles.  It weighs a very impressive 46.65 troy ounces and is in very good antique condition with light wear to the highlights.  (It’s in better condition than it looks in the detail pictures.)

Our Price: SOLD

Item code: K515