Metals
Joseph Belcher Sr. (Maker)
Joseph Belcher Jr. (Possible maker)
Newport, Newport, Rhode Island, New England, United States, North America
1769-1790
Pewter
Cast
1956.0046.014
Object Number1956.0046.014 |
Dish
Metals
Gift of Charles K. Davis
Joseph Belcher Sr. (Maker)
04/13/1729-09/27/1778
Father of Joseph Belcher Jr, pewterer.
Joseph Belcher Sr moved from his native Boston, Massachusetts to Newport, Rhode Island as a young man. He was admitted as a freeman in 1756, the same year that he led an expedition against Crown Point and served as a member of the Rhode Island Assembly. He worked mostly as a brazier. He moved his family to Brookline, Massachusetts during the British occupation of Newport, and he died there.
For more on Joseph Belcher Sr's marks, see Montgomery, History of American Pewter (1973), p.216; Carl Jacobs, Guide to American Pewter (1957), p.36; Ebert, Collecting American Pewter (1973), p.123; and Kauffman, The American Pewterer (1970), p.133. See also Laughlin, Pewter in America (1981), vol.1, p.89-91 and C. Jordan Thorn, Handbook of American Silver and Pewter Marks (1949), p.239.
Joseph Belcher Jr. (Possible maker)
1751/2
Son of Joseph Belcher Sr.
Joseph Belcher Jr was born in Rhode Island but moved to Connecticut in the mid-1780's after training with his father. A notice in the Connecticut Gazette in New London in June, 1787 announced that "Greene and Belcher Pewterers Inform the Public that they carry on the Pewterers Business at Mr. Isaiah Bolles' Shop in the Main-Street...." The partnership was dissolved by September of the same year. Some handles of Belcher's porringers came from the same moulds used by Josiah Danforth. He married a second time (after a divorce from his first wife) in 1788 in Lyme, Connecticut
For more on Joseph Belcher Jr's marks, see John Carl Thomas, Connecticut Pewter and Pewterers (1976), p.155; Kauffman, The American Pewterer (1970), p.133; Ebert, Collecting American Pewter (1973), p.123; Carl Jacobs, Guide to American Pewter (1957), p.36; Montgomery, History of American Pewter (1973), p.216; and C. Jordan Thorn, Handbook of American Silver and Pewter Marks (1949), p.239. See also Thomas, Connecticut Pewterers, p.154-157 and Laughlin, Pewter in America (1981), vol.1, p.90-91.
Newport, Newport, Rhode Island, New England, United States, North America
Origin may be New London, Connecticut per previous cataloguer (2006).
1769-1790
1. Mark; Underside, center; "JOSEPH" above and "BELCHER" below, a bird in center, stamped three times, partially effaced in each.
2. Inscription; Underside in well; "SCH" engraved in script.
Pewter
Cast
0.591 (H) , 9.606 (Diam)
1.5 (H) , 24.4 (Diam)
Text available soon.