Lively flat-chased scrolls and flowers surround the somewhat formal inscription on this cup. It seems unlikely to have been a personal gift but rather one presented to Mrs. Ward by employees or other associates of her husband, Nahum. Nahum Ward moved from his birthplace of Athol, Massachusetts, to Boston in 1825. He worked for two years in a soap and candle establishment and then entered the oil and tallow business, in neighboring Roxbury. After amassing a considerable fortune, Ward helped found the Rockland Bank of Roxbury and served on its board for twenty-seven years.2 Ruth Ward would have celebrated her fortieth birthday in 1854. Five years later, she received a large pitcher also marked by Newell Harding & Co. and inscribed in the same manner to “Mrs. Ward” (cat. no. 207).
The deftly drawn scrolls and flowers in the exuberant, light-hearted engraving add interest and fashion to a plain, sturdy form. The work of the engraver can be seen on other silverware marked by Harding (cat. nos. 206 – 7) and on that marked by other Boston retailers. Working in the mid-nineteenth century, this as-yet-unidentified craftsman seems to be looking back to the previous century, to the Rococo-style engraving on surviving works by Boston’s colonial silversmiths such as Jacob Hurd or Paul Revere. However, the scrolls decorating this 1854 cup surround a reserve bearing an inscription to the wife of a self-made American businessman rather than the English-style family coat of arms characteristic of eighteenth-century silver.

This text has been adapted from "Silver of the Americas, 1600-2000," edited by Jeannine Falino and Gerald W.R. Ward, published in 2008 by the MFA. Complete references can be found in that publication.

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