SILVER
Minted into coins and made into wares, silver shares space on the dining table with ceramic forms, some of which may be fashioned after silver examples or enhanced with silver mounts. Used as legal tender for thousands of years, silver coins often were melted down to make silver wares, then melted down again later to produce new coins. A global trade economy emerged in the 1500s with silver mined by forced Indigenous laborers and enslaved Africans in Spanish-occupied South America.>
Rhode Island’s long and important history of silversmithing began around 1700 in Newport, then transitioned to Providence. Objects by these early silversmiths—including Samuel Vernon, Samuel Casey, Ezekiel Burr, Nehemiah Dodge, John Tanner, and Henry L. Webster—are shown throughout this exhibition. The globe-shaped teapot in this case was made by Jonathan Clarke, who was born in Newport in 1705. Clarke worked in Newport until 1755, when he became active in Providence.
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