Coffeepot

c. 1770

Joseph Richardson, Sr.
American, 1711–1784
Philadelphia

Because it was a costly import, coffee was not a popular beverage in early colonial America. Increased trade between the American colonies, South America, and the West Indies made coffee an accessible staple by the middle of the 18th century. Although the form of this single-bellied coffeepot suggests it was made at an earlier date, its broken scroll handle, double-domed cover, and leaf-and-shell decoration place this object firmly within the high Rococo period.

Status: On View, Gallery 167
Department: Arts of the Americas

Artist: Joseph Richardson, Sr.
Title: Coffeepot
Place: Philadelphia (Object made in)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: c. 1770
Medium: Silver with mahogany
Inscriptions: Marked twice on bottom, in rectangle: IR Engraved on bottom: S / IM / 1770 Scratched on bottom: 38·14 Engraved proper right side: A. S. / to / J. M. M.
Dimensions: 75 × 29.5 × 55.7 cm (29 1/2 × 11 5/8 × 21 15/16 in.)
Credit Line: Purchased with funds provided by the Antiquarian Society through the Lena Turnbull Gilbert and the Jessie Spalding Landon funds
Reference Number: 1984.50
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/102121/manifest.json

S.J. Shrubsole, The Magazine Antiques 120, no. 69 (July 1981): (ill.).
Art Institute of Chicago, Annual Report, 1983–84 (1984): 42 (ill.)..
Art Institute of Chicago, A Record of Sharing: A Supplement to the 1983–84 Annual Report of the Art Institute of Chicago (1984): 42 (ill.).
Milo M. Naeve, et al., A Decade of Decorative Arts: The Antiquarian Society of The Art Institute of Chicago, exh. cat. (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 1986), 84–85, cat. 58 (ill.).
Tom Armstrong, “The New Field–McCormick Galleries in the Art Institute of Chicago,” The Magazine Antiques 134, no. 4 (Oct. 1988), 822–35 (ill.).
Judith A. Barter, et al., American Arts at The Art Institute of Chicago: From Colonial Times to World War I (Chicago: The Art Institute of Chicago, 1998), 101–2, cat. 34 (ill.).
Judith A. Barter, Elizabeth McGoey, et al., American Silver in the Art Institute of Chicago (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2016), cat. 32 (ill.).
Elizabeth McGoey, ed., American Silver in the Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 2018), https://publications.artic.edu/americansilver/reader/collection/section/6, cat. 32 (ill.).

Art Institute of Chicago, A Decade of Decorative Arts: The Antiquarian Society of The Art Institute of Chicago, Nov. 12, 1986–Jan. 4, 1987, cat. 58.

Joseph (1742-1822) and Mary Burling Smith (born 1753) (m. 1770), Burlington, NJ; by descent to their son, Samuel Joseph Smith (1771-1835); by descent to his cousin, Amelia Smith (died 1857) by 1835; by descent to her great-niece, Jane Maris Morris (born 1831), 1856. With S.J. Shrubsole, New York, by 1984; sold to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1984.

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

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