MARK OF CORNELIUS KIERSTEDE, NEW HAVEN, CIRCA 1731

Details

A SILVER BAPTISMAL BASIN FROM THE MILFORD CHURCH
MARK OF CORNELIUS KIERSTEDE, NEW HAVEN, CIRCA 1731
Of deep circular form, with slightly domed center, the rim with narrow edge and engraved between two leaves halfe: By: The: Gift: of * Mrs: Alice * Buckingham: to: The : Church: of: Milford* october: ye. 26: Ao 1731, the reverse engraved with scratch weight 16* oz=one=S, marked in center of bowl, on rim closely three times, and once on either side of inscription, also with Yale University Art Gallery accession number 1.1.1960
10 in. (25 cm.) diameter; 15 oz. 10 dwt. (493 gr.)

Provenance

Alice Buckingham (1664-1741/42)
First Congregational Church, Milford, 1731-2001, sold
Sotheby's, New York, 18 Janaury 2002, lot 457

Literature

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, American Church Silver of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries with a Few Pieces of Domestic Plate, 1911, p. 82. illus. pl. 1
E. Alfred Jones, The Old Silver of American Churches, 1913, p. 287, illus. pl. XC
George Munson Curtis, Early Silver of Connecticut and its Makers, 1913, illus. pl. XIV
The New Haven Colony Historical Society, An Exhibition of New Haven Silver, 1967, no. 2, p. 13, illus. p. 64
Peter Bohan and Philip Hammerslough, Early Connecticut Silver, 1700-1840, 1970, pp. 28-9, illus. pl. 7

Exhibited

"American Church Silver of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries with a Few Pieces of Domestic Plate," Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1911, no. 693
Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, 1960-1972 (1.1.1960)
"Connecticut Tercentenary 1635-1935; Early Connecticut Silver, 1700-1830," 1935, no. 95, p. 24
The New Haven Colony Historical Society, "An Exhibition of New Haven Silver," 1967, no. 1

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Lot Essay

Alice Newton (1664-1694) was the daughter of Rev. Roger Newton, of Milford. In 1689 she married Daniel Buckingham.

The First United Church of Christ in Milford was founded in 1639 by the Reverend Prudden who arrived in the colonies in 1638 with fifteen families. After Prudden was ordained on August 22, 1639, the congregation set about creating a theocracy that became the town of Milford. A portion of the congregation left in 1741 to form the Plymouth Ecclesiastical Society, which they set up on the opposite bank of the Wepawaug River. By 1926, these two churches were joined together once again.

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