AN AMERICAN SILVER SUGAR BOWL AND COVER, MYER MYERS, NEW YORK, CIRCA 1750

sugar bowl of inverted pear shape fitted with a loose conforming cover having a ring top. The whole resting on a ring foot, later engraved underneath WSJ to CJF.

Probably Rev. Samuel Johnson (1696-1772), to his son
William Johnson (1730-1756), to his nephew
Samuel William Johnson (1761-1846), to his son
William Samuel Johnson (1795-1883), to his son
Samuel William Johnson (1828-1895), to his son
William Samuel Johnson (1859-1937), to his step-granddaughter
Carolina J. (Farley) Whitelaw, sold 1973
Jonathan Trace, January 1986

Myer Myers 2001, no. 25
Seattle Art Museum, 1991-96

Reverend Doctor Samuel Johnson was a clergyman, educator, and philosopher in Colonial America, and an important figure in the American Enlightenment. A tutor at Yale, he became an Anglican and, with Benjamin Franklin and Dr. William Smith, created a new model for a college, with classes taught in English, not Latin. Despite opposition on religious grounds, King's College - now Columbia University - was opened in 1754 with Johnson as first president. A portrait of Johnson by Thomas McIlworth, owned by Columbia University, was included in the 2001 Myers exhibition (cat. no. 126).

Samuel Johnson and his first wife Charity Nicoll owed at least eight items by Myers, making them among his most important patrons. The form of this sugar bowl is very similar to one by Myers that was owned by Rev. Johnson's elder son William Samuel Johnson (1727-1819), see Barquist 2001 no. 24.  The bowl in the Nutt collection may have been a gift for his younger brother, William "Billy."  To his parents' chagrin, "Billy" died of smallpox in 1756, while on a trip to England to be ordained; his mother died two years later of the same disease.  As "Billy" was unmarried, his silver descended with the rest of his parents' and brother's purchases from Myers.