An American Silver Sugar Bowl, Joseph Richardson, Jr. and Nathaniel Richardson, Philadelphia, Circa 1780

Jonathan Trace, Portsmouth, NH, February 3, 2003

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. 119, p. 234-235

Joseph Richardson Sr. made double-bellied sugar bowls in the 1760s and early 1770s, probably deriving the form from English imported examples, as he imported "Double Belleyed" tea wares from John Masterman in the early 1770s (noted by Jeanne Sloane). An example of circa 1765, owned by Joseph and Mary Richardson themselves, was sold Sotheby's New York, 28 October 2004, lot 639.

In 1777 his sons Joseph Jr. and Nathaniel took over the family business. Despite the British occupation of Philadelphia, as Quakers the Richardsons were largely unaffected, despite being members of the Philadelphia County militia. This bowl is an example of how the Richardson brothers continued with established rococo forms in their wartime work, at a time English silver - unable to be imported - was fully embracing Neoclassicism.