Sauceboat (one of a pair)

Inscriptions

Marked on bottom at center: SE [pellet between, crowned with fleur-de-lis in shield]

Label

To manufacture the tankard and sauceboats, Boston silversmiths Henry Hurst and Samuel Edwards likely used South American silver mined by enslaved people of African and Indigenous descent. Silver extracted by enslaved people enriched the Spanish empire when transported and sold globally.

We do not know if Hurst or Edwards knew of these mining practices, but if they did, they probably did not care. Hurst and Edwards each enslaved at least one man, but their names are unknown to us. They are listed by age—rather than name—in period documents. It is likely these enslaved men labored in the shops of these two Boston silversmiths.

From the 2023 exhibition Liquidity: Art, Commodities, and Water, curated by Michael Hartman, Jonathan Little Cohen Associate Curator of American Art

In 18th-century America, the production and sale of luxury goods like these silver pieces were often intertwined with slavery in the North as well as the South. Boston silversmiths Henry Hurst and Samuel Edwards each enslaved at least one man, but their names were never recorded, only their ages.. Furthermore, to manufacture the tankard and sauceboats, Hurst and Edwards likely used South American silver mined by enslaved people of African and Indigenous descent. This silver exemplifies the chains of production that brought wealth to owners through the labor of enslaved Africans and their descendants.

From the 2026 exhibition Inhabiting Historical Time: Slavery and Its Afterlives, curated by Amelia Kahl (Barbara C. & Harvey P. Hood 1918 Senior Curator of Academic Programming) and Alisa Swindell (Associate Curator of Photography)

Course History

First Year Student Enrichment Program - Cultures, Identities and Belongings, Francine A'Ness, Summer 2023

Anthropology 55.01, Anthropology of Global Health, Anne Sosin, Fall 2023

Anthropology 55.01, Anthropology of Global Health, Anne Sosin, Fall 2023

Art History 40.01, American Art and Identity, Mary Coffey, Fall 2023

Creative Writing 10.02, Writing and Reading Fiction, Katherine Crouch, Fall 2023

Geography 11.01, Qualitative Methods, Emma Colven, Fall 2023

Geography 2.01, Introduction to Human Geography, Coleen Fox, Fall 2023

Geography 31.01, Postcolonial Geographies, Erin Collins, Fall 2023

English 30.01, African and African American Studies 34.01, Early Black American LIterature, Michael Chaney, Winter 2024

Writing 5.06, Image and Text, Becky Clark, Winter 2024

Writing 5.07, Image and Text, Becky Clark, Winter 2024

College Course 26.01, What's in Your Toolbox?, Francine A'Ness and Mokhtar Bouba, Fall 2024

German 1.01, Introductory German, Meryem Deniz, Fall 2024

Philosophy 23.01, Art and Aesthetics, John Kulvicki, Fall 2024

Exhibition History

American Art at Dartmouth: Highlights from the Hood Museum of Art, William B. Jaffe and Evelyn A. Jaffe Hall Galleries, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, June 9-December 9, 2007.

Harrington Silver Case, Hopkins Center, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, January 1986.

Harrington Silver Case, Hopkins Center, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, July 1985.

Inhabiting Historical Time: Slavery and Its Afterlives, Jaffe and Hall Galleries, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, December 20, 2025 - July 11, 2026.

Israel Sack Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, January 22, 1991-June 22, 1997.

Israel Sack Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, September 16, 1997-May 8, 2007.

Liquidity: Art, Commodities, and Water, Israel Sack Gallery and the Rush Family Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, July 29, 2023-November 24, 2024.

New England Silver at Dartmouth College: A Tribute to Frank L. Harrington, Class of 1924, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, June 3-August 20, 1989, no. 34.

Publication History

Barbara J. MacAdam, New England Silver at Dartmouth College: A Tribute to Frank L. Harrington, Class of 1924, Hanover, New Hampshire: Trustees of Dartmouth College, 1989, no. 34.

The Magazine Antiques, Museum Accessions, October 1985, p. 662-670, ill. p. 666.

Decorative Arts Society Newsletter, vol. 11, no. 2, June, 1985, ill. p. 14.

Patricia E. Kane, Colonial Massachusetts Silversmiths and Jewlers, Hanover: University Press of New England, p. 427-451, 1998.

Barbara J. MacAdam, American Art at Dartmouth: Highlights from the Hood Muesum of Art, Hanover: Trustees of Dartmouth College, 2007, p. 189, no. 158.

Provenance

Descended in Lyman Family. Purchased in Cooperstown, New York; sold to Frank L. Harrington, Sr. (1902-1988) and Louise Cronin Harrington (1904-2000), Worcester, Massachusetts; given to present collection, 1984.

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Subjects