Museum Collections

This handsome sugar bowl marries the double-bellied form popular during the Rococo period with Neoclassical embellishments, such as beaded borders and a leafy pineapple finial. It was made by Joseph Anthony, Jr. in Philadelphia, where silversmiths excelled at creating tea wares in this style. The bowl, which descended in the Schuyler family of New York, may have been a wedding gift for John Bradstreet Schuyler (1765-1795) and his wife, Elizabeth Van Rensselaer (1768-1841). A Philadelphia-made object seems an unlikely gift for a couple with such deep roots in the Hudson Valley; however, it is possible that a friend or family member purchased the bowl while visiting the city. Either John Lansing, Jr. or Alexander Hamilton, both guests at the wedding, could have purchased the bowl while in attendance at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia just four months earlier.