An American Silver Tall Coffee Pot, Joseph and Nathaniel Richardson, Philadelphia, Circa 1785

The Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Peter A. Pfaffenroth

The monogram is that of Mordechai and Hannah Lewis. The later monogram is that of Doris E. Sheaffer, direct descendant of Hannah and Mordechai. Mordechai, son of Jonathan James Lewis and Rachel Lewis, was born in Philadelphia September 21, 1748 and died March 13, 1799. He married Hannah Saunders on January 7, 1773. His career started in the country house of Samuel Neave, with whom he later formed a partnership under the name Neave, Herman, and Lewis. He later became a ship owner with William Bingham under the firm of Mordechai Lewis, Water St. East Side, Philadelphia. Mordechai served with the Philadelphia Contributorship for the Insurance of Houses by loss by fire founded by Benjamin Franklin and others in 1752. His name can be found on some of the paper money issued by the Province of Pennsylvania before the Revolution. From 1780 to his death in 1799, he was treasurer to the Pennsylvania Hospital. At the time of his death, he resided at 112 South Trout Street with his counting house at Dock Street.