This cruet service descended to the donor through either the Ketchum or Morris families.

This cruet service descended to the donor through either the Ketchum or Morris families.

This is one of a set of six goblets presented to Commodore Duncan Nathaniel Ingraham by the state of South Carolina in commemoration of his 1853 rescue of Martin Koszta, a Hungarian political refugee and American citizen, in the harbor of Contantinople, from the Austrian government who had kidnapped him.

This standing cup was presented to merchant William Wetmore Cryder (1835-1918), a founder of Wetmore & Cryder, a New York mercantile firm that imported camphor and raw silk from China. According to the family, the cup was given to William Wetmore Cryder in Canton around the time of the firm's dissolution in 1856, an event that coincided with the beginning of the Second Opium War (1856-1860) between China and Britain over importation of the addictive drug. The cup's applied cast decoration is typical of silver made by Chinese craftsmen for the export market. The story depicted by the cast figures, foliage, and landscape may relate to the 1856 Battle of Nanking.

These canns are marked by Bartholomew Le Roux II, son of the noted silversmith Charles Le Roux and the third generation to follow the family trade. Their form adheres to a design formula popular in New York City at mid-century. Each cann bears the engraved crest of the Beekman or Bancker family, probably added in the nineteenth century. Although the original owner of the set is unknown, it was likely a Beekman. Interestingly, Le Roux's mother was Catharina Beekman (b. 1689), daughter of the wealthy landowner and physician Gerardus Beekman (1653-1723), and his kinship ties may have helped him secure the patronage of the family.

Engraved with the Bancker family crest.

Engraved with the Bancker family crest.

This cann belonged to Presbyterian minister and patriot Rev. Alexander McWhorter (1734-1807) who is remembered primarily as George Washington's chaplain. It is one of at least twenty-eight canns manufactured by Myer Myers known today. This cann was the first piece of domestic silver acquired by the New-York Historical Society.

Small, shallow two-handled bowls such as this were fairly common in New England and New York from the second half of the seventeenth century through about 1730. Usually referred to as dram cups or anthropomorphized as "two ear'd" cups, the vessels were intended to hold a small draught of liquor. This example is inscribed "Jannetye Rappelye," probably for Jannetye (Jane) Rappelye (1707-1781), the daughter of the Newtown, Queens, brewer Joris Rappelye (1675-1741) and his wife, Angenitje Berrien (1675-1756). The engraving of her full name on the bowl's underside-and the use of her name's Dutch form-suggests that it might have been presented for a special occasion, possibly upon her marriage to Jan DeBevoise (1704-1777) of Newtown in 1729.