A Rare Set of Three American Silver Casters, Samuel Edwards, Boston, Circa 1750

Sotheby's, New York, June 26-27, 1991, lot 113

Christie's, New York, January 18, 2002, lot 314

Patricia E. Kane, Colonial Massachusetts Silversmiths and Jewelers, 1998, p. 447

Jeanne Sloane, Artistry and Enterprise: American Silver 1660-1790 - Survey of American Colonial silver held in the collection of Roy J. Zuckerberg, New York, Smallwood & Stewart, 2018, no. 37, p. 76-77

Of the recorded casters made by Samuel Edwards listed in Kane, fifteen are singles and the present lot is the only set of multiple casters. While numerous examples of American silver casters exist, a complete set of three by an American silversmith is extremely rare. Typically, casters and cruet stands were imported from England.

Jeanne Sloane discusses the prevalence of casters and cruet stands in the Colonies in her book, with the greatest number being "made and exported by London silversmith Samuel Wood [a specialist maker in the form]. Two complete cruet sets by Samuel Wood survive with histories of ownership in Boston; one, dated 1745, has the coat-of-arms of Benjamin Faneuil, and the other, dated 1747, has the coat-of-arms of Nathaniel Wheelwright and his wife Ann, née Apthorp (Alcorn 2000, no. 94, p. 157-158 and no. 97, p 164-165). The three casters in Faneuil's set are virtually identical to these examples by Samuel Edwards, who, like his Boston contemporaries, would have been painfully aware of the competing wares pouring in from England."