A Fresh and Large Assortment

American Silver from the Burrows Collection

February 13–April 30, 2000

Jacob Hurd

Kitchen Pepper

c. 1720 (Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute)

In an eighteenth-century advertisement, silversmith Jonathan Sarrazin described his wares as "a fresh and large assortment," a phrase that aptly describes the private collection of H.M. and Elizabeth H. Burrows. Assembled over a period of sixty years, the Burrows collection encompasses a broad range of silver forms made in Boston, Philadelphia, and New York between 1652 and 1899. From delicate teapots to voluminous tankards and from graceful sauceboats to modest salt dishes, one-hundred fifty-five silver objects by Paul Revere, Jacob Hurd, Myer Myers, Joseph and Nathaniel Richardson, and other artists provided a glimpse into American history. The exhibition examined the lives of the people who originally owned the silver, such as Revolutionary patriot and diarist Christopher Marshall and Barbary Wars hero Commodore Stephen Decatur, as well as the silversmiths who created it. A Fresh and Large Assortment also invited viewers to explore the social customs surrounding eating and drinking in the Colonial and Federal American home.