A Rare Pair Of American Silver Candlesticks, Myer Myers, New York, circa 1750-65

on stepped shaped square bases with shells at corners, the circular wells rising for knopped baluster stems with shells at shoulders, the banded campana-form sconces fitted with removable conforming shaped square nozzles

Probably Jacob LeRoy (1727-1793) and his second wife Catherine Rutgers, m. 1766; to his daughter
Elizabeth LeRoy, m. 1793 Guilian McEvers, to their daughter
Catherine Augusta McEvers (1795-1868), m. 1814 Hugh McCulloch Birckhead (1788-1853)
By descent to their great-grandson, by whom consigned to auction in Baltimore in 1997

New Haven: Yale University Art Gallery, Myer Myers Jewish Silversmith in Colonial New York, 14 September - 30 December 2001
Los Angeles: Skirball Cultural Center, February 20-May 26, 2002
Delaware: Henry Francis DuPont Winterthur Museum, June 20-September 13, 2002

Barquist, David L., Myer Myers: Jewish Silversmith in Colonial New York, 2001, no. 8, p. 87
Rutledge, Anna Wells, "A Handlist of Miniatures in the Collections of the Maryland Historical Society," Maryland Historical Magazine, 40 (1945), p. 121
Barnard , Ella K. "Mount Royal and Its Owners", Maryland Historical Magazine, 26 (December 1931), p. 31

good condition
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Silver candlesticks are extremely rare in Early American silver, the purview of only the wealthiest of the Colonists.  Sets of four were even rarer, and these sticks form a set of four with a pair in a private collection (Barquist no. 9).  David Barquist suggests the original owners of the four were Jacob LeRoy and his second wife, Catherine Rutgers, who married in 1766.  The sticks are first recorded in the possession of their granddaughter Catherine Augusta McEvers.

Jacob LeRoy's second wife was the sister of his first, Cornelia Rutgers, married in 1735,  Both girls and LeRoy's business partner Anthony Rutgers were the children of Harman Rutgers; Myers made a mourning ring for the girls' cousin, Anna Panet (Museum of the City of New York, Barquist no. 49).  Jacob and Catherine LeRoy were probably also the original owners of a pair of canns by Daniel Christian Fueter, this sale lot 3240, which descended with these candlesticks in the McEvers-Birckhead family.

Only one other set of four candlesticks by Myers is known, made for Catherine Livingston Lawrence and now divided between the Metropolitan Museum and Yale University Art Gallery.