Pair of American Eighteen-Karat Gold Goblets

Object Details

Object Essay

Gold has been used rarely in the United States for domestic objects, although most early craftsmen called themselves goldsmiths because the techniques of working in silver and gold were identical. This pair of gold cups is in the naturalistic manner characteristic of mid-nineteenth-century New York rococo revival silver. The design of broad, curling, embossed, and engraved grapevines with chased leaves and fruit was used on silver marked by a number of New York smiths around 1850.^{1_{Another example of presentation silver in this style is the hot-water kettle made by John Chandler Moore for the firm of Ball, Tompkins and Black of New York in 1850 as a gift for Marshall Lefferts, president of the New York, New England, and New York State Telegraph Companies (19th-Century Furniture, cat. nos. 141, 142).}}

A beautifully engraved inside-cylindered locomotive appears on one side of each goblet. This type of engine was popular with New England locomotive manufacturers, but the design may have been copied from a printer’s line-cut or another readily available print source. This engraving suggests that the cups were made as presentation pieces to commemorate an achievement in the development of railroading. The reserves on the opposite side of each cup lack inscriptions, however, indicating that the presentation was never made. 

Jacob Wood and Jasper W. Hughes served their apprenticeships under William Gale and are listed as silversmiths in the partnership of Gale, Wood, and Hughes between 1833 and 1845. Wood and Hughes appear as partners in the New York City directories in 1840, and again between 1845 and 1851, listing themselves as jewelers and makers of silver forks and spoons. This suggests that they worked only in small wares and that the hollowwares they retailed were made by others. The high quality of these extraordinary gold goblets and their great similarity to work by John Chandler Moore, known to have supplied the firms of Marquand, Ball, and Black as well as Tiffany & Co. and others, may indicate that the goblets were actually crafted by Moore. Jacob Wood died in 1850, and the firm continued under Charles Wood, Stephen T. Fraprie, and Jasper W. Hughes until 1856, when Hughes retired. The company took on new partners and remained in business until 1899, when it was purchased by the firm of Graff, Washbourne, and Dunn.^{2_{For a brief history of the Wood and Hughes firm, see Rainwater, 191; Cramer, 28–32. These cups are marked “W&H” in block letters within a rectangular reserve, inside the bottom of each. For the partnership’s early marks, see Belden 1980, 182, 454.}}

Jennifer F. Goldsborough and Barbara McLean Ward

Excerpted from Jonathan L. Fairbanks. Becoming a Nation: Americana from the Diplomatic Reception Rooms, U.S. Department of State. New York: Rizzoli, 2003.