Covered Sugar Bowl

1765–75

Bancroft Woodcock
American, 1732–1817
Wilmington, Delaware

Wealthy colonists ordered silver sugar dishes and cream pots to complement their English ceramic or Chinese export porcelain tea or coffeepots. Complete matching tea sets were not common until the late 18th century. The double-bellied form of these objects was popular throughout the colonies during the Rococo period. The decoration, called chasing, was achieved by working the surface with a small hammer and chisels.

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

Artist: Bancroft Woodcock
Title: Covered Sugar Bowl
Place: Wilmington (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. 1765–1775
Medium: Silver
Inscriptions: Marked on bottom, in a conforming rectangle: B: WOODCOCK Engraved: S • W to E • R
Dimensions: 18.4 × 11.1 × 11.4 cm (7 1/4 × 4 3/8 × 4 1/2 in.)
Credit Line: Purchased with funds provided by the Antiquarian Society
Reference Number: 1978.137a-b
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/52260/manifest.json

Firestone and Parson Advertisement,
The Magazine Antiques 113 (Feb. 1978), 336 (ill.).
Art Institute of Chicago, Art Institute of Chicago Annual Report, 1977–78 (1978): 45.
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), 81–83, cat. 56 (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), 97–99, no. 32.
Judith A. Barter, Elizabeth McGoey, et al., American Silver in the Art Institute of Chicago (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2016), cat. 29 (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. 29 (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. 56.

With Firestone and Parson, Boston, by 1978; sold to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1978.

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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.

Learn more.