Museum Collections
Luce Center
Teapot
Object name
Teapot
Date
ca. 1695
Medium
Silver, wood
Dimensions
Overall: 7 1/2 x 8 3/4 x 5 in. (19.1 x 22.2 x 12.7 cm)
Silver Weight: 16 oz (troy) 4.7 dwt (505 g)
Description
Wrought silver teapot; squat pear-shaped body on an applied reeded footring; slightly flared reeded rim with an engraved waved line below; high domed lid with a cast finial with a central knop; lid hinged onto the upper handle socket with a plain flange; straight seamed and tapered spout; handle sockets cylindrical in section and fitted with a wooden c-scroll handle; engraved on both sides, left of the handle are the Schuyler arms, a hand and a clothed arm cut off at the elbow holding a falcon with a ribbon about its neck, in a shield surrounded by foliate scrolls and surmounted by a falcon with a ribbon around its neck on an armored head; left of handle, leaf garland around a reverse cipher with the initials, "JES" and a chaplet of leaves and roses above; maker's marks on the base.
Credit Line
Bequest of Major Philip Schuyler
Object Number
1915.20
Marks
Mark: stamped on base, four times around the center punch: demi-horse or unicorn in a square
Inscription: engraved at right of handle: "J E S" in a reverse cipher
Gallery Label
This stout teapot was made around 1695 for the Albany couple Johannes Schuyler and Elizabeth Staats Wendell. One side is engraved with the couple's initials, elaborately entwined, and the other side bears the Schuyler coat of arms enclosed in luxurious baroque mantling. The vessel may be the earliest surviving teapot made in New York. The teapot is attributed to silversmith Kiliaen Van Rensselaer III, whose family owned and managed a vast estate along the Hudson River.
Provenance
Johannes Schuyler (1668-1747) and Elizabeth Staats Wendell Schuyler (ca. 1662-1737); to their son Johannes Schuyler (1697-1741), who married Cornelia Van Cortlandt (1698-1762); to their son Philip Schuyler (1733-1804), who married Catherine Van Rensselaer (1734-1803); probably to their son Philip Jeremiah (1768-1835), who married 2) Mary Anna Sawyer (1781-1852); to their son George Lee Schuyler (1811-1890), who married Eliza Hamilton (1811-1863); to their son Philip Schuyler (1836-1906), the donor.
Bibliography
Hofer, Margaret K. "Seventeenth-and eighteenth-century family silver." The Magazine Antiques 167 (2005): 156-160.
Due to ongoing research, information about this object is subject to change.





