Arthur Stone Arts and Crafts Sterling Silver Sauce Boat with Tray, Gardner, MA, 1912

This stunning sauce boat with undertray is a wonderful example of arts & crafts silver with lovely proportions, graceful lines, and a beautiful surface.  The inverted helmet-shaped body has an applied, plain band around its outer edge and is engraved 'B.R.' on one side. The loop handle with an applied thumbpiece adds a bold element to the body. Around the edge of the oval, conical base is an applied ring raising the sauceboat slightly. The fitted undertray also has an applied band around its edge and a matching monogram. It is uncommon to find both items still together after so many years.

Based on Stone records, this item was purchased by Mina M. Bruere in 1912. (1) 'Mrs. Stone used duplicate prints of her photographs for publicity...For the 1916 altar book mount, she sent prints to the Philadelphia Arts and Crafts Guild, to the Boston Society of Arts and Crafts, to the Little Gallery, to Julia Marlowe Sothern,... to Mina M. Bruere, and to other valued customers.' (2)

The Stone trademark and 'STERLING' are marked on both pieces. The sauce boat is also marked with a 'C' and the stand with a 'T'. These denote the work of David Carlson and Herbert A. Taylor, Master Craftsman and Medalist at the Society of Arts and Crafts. (3) The stand measures 6.25 inches long by 4.25 inches wide and the sauceboat measures 6.75 inches long across the spout and handle by 4.5 inches high to the top of the handle. They are in great condition with slight surface scratches to the sides of the sauceboat.

Endnotes:

1. Arthur J. Stone Papers, Archives of American Art, Box 15 "Photograph file of finished works of art". Noted as item '9559 Sauceboat with tray #7620.'
2. Elenita C. Chickering, Arthur J. Stone 1847-1938: Designer and Silversmith, (Boston: the Boston Athenaeum, 1994), p. 42.
3. Ibid., p. 180.