TWO AMERICAN SILVER COVERED JUGS, CHURCHILL & TREADWELL AND JESSE CHURCHILL, BOSTON, CIRCA 1800 AND 1810

both with gadroon rim and acorn finial, the first engraved Benjamin and Judith Bussey, the smaller engraved the same below monogram BJB and with raffia covered handle.

Jonathan Trace, February 1998

smaller with a few minor dents, overall good
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.

Benjamin Bussey, philanthropist, b. in Canton, Mass., 1 March 1757; d. in Roxbury, Mass., 13 Jan. 1842.  He enlisted in the revolutionary army when eighteen years old, and was present at the capture of Burgoyne.  At the age of twenty-two he married, and began business in Dedham, Mass., as a silversmith, with a capital of ten dollars.  he removed in 1782 to Boston, where he engaged in foreign trade, and made a fortune, which he left, after the decease of certain relatives, to Harvard university, one half to endow a school of agriculture and the other half for the support of the law and divinity schools.  His estate included a farm of several hundred acres at Jamaica Plain, near Boston, and, in accordance with his will, the university established there in 1869 a School of practical agriculture and horticulture.  Mr. Bussey's bequest was estimated at the time of his death to amount to $350,000. (Appleton's Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1887, p. 475).