This gold buckle belonged to Sarah Bayard (1683-1739). It may have been presented to her around the time of her marriage in 1703. She would have used the buckle to secure a girdle with a narrow ribbon belt worn around her waist. The circumstances under which Sarah received this elegant gold girdle buckle remain unclear. Scholars have posited that Sarah used her mother's bequest of "£12 in money to make her a silver tankard when she is of age or married" to purchase this gold buckle instead of the silver tankard. However, the use of Sarah's maiden name on the buckle points to a date around or prior to her marriage in 1703. A more likely scenario is that Sarah's future husband or another family member presented her the buckle as an engagement or wedding gift.

The Society of St. Tammany or Columbian Order was formed in the 1780s in New York City in response to the city's more exclusive clubs. Initially most of its members were craftsmen; they adopted Tamanend, a legendary Delaware chief, as their patron and used pseudo-Indian insignia and titles. Meetings were held in a hall on Spruce Street from 1798 to 1812 and in another at Nassau and Frankfort streets from 1812 to 1868. The Tammany Society entered the political arena in the early 19th century with their support of Aaron Burr, Martin Van Buren, and such progressive policies as universal male suffrage, lien laws to protect craftsmen, and the abolition of imprisonment for debt. Members of Tammany Society wore badges of this design on their chests to identify themselves at meetings. The Tammany Society passed an act on January 11, 1790, specifying the badge's design and iconography: a snake with thirteen rattles and a motto, "BEWARE." Its reverse represented Columbus's Landing, the date October 12, 1492, and the motto "WHERE LIBERTY DWELLS there is my COUNTRY."

This Neoclassical ladle was made by the partnership of Joseph and Teunis D. DuBois, brothers of mixed Huguenot and Dutch descent from Monmouth County, New Jersey, who worked together in New York City for a brief period between June 1795 and spring 1797. Teunis's account book documenting his sales to silver retailers between 1797 and 1813 records the sale of four types of ladles: soup (100), butter (20), gravy (8), and punch (2). Given the predominance of soup ladles in his accounting, coupled with the relatively frequent survival of the form shown here, it seems likely that this example was originally intended for soup. The ladle bears the engraved initials of John Lincklaen (1768-1822), who married Helen Ledyard in 1797. Their wedding date corresponds with the brief partnership of the DuBois brothers, suggesting that the ladle may have been presented to the couple as a wedding gift.