Communion Dish

1781

Benjamin Burt (American, 1729–1805)
Boston

Because silver was associated with purity and durability, it was the most popular material used to fashion objects for administering the Sacrament. Matching sets were rare, and church silver was usually acquired piecemeal over a period of decades. By the end of the 18th century, the First Church of Medford, Massachusetts, had 20 pieces of communion silver, all given by different donors and fashioned by different makers.

Status: On View, Gallery 166
Department: Arts of the Americas

Artist: Benjamin Burt
Title: Communion Dish
Place: Boston (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.: 1781
Medium: Silver
Inscriptions: Marked on bottom, in rectangle: B.BURT Engraved around rim of dish: The Legacy of the Honble ISAAC ROYALL ESQ. to the CHURCH OF CHRIST in Medford 1781 Scratch weight on underside: oz / 25-6
Dimensions: 3.2 × 32.4 × 32.4 cm (1 1/4 × 12 3/4 × 12 3/4 in.)
Credit Line: Purchased with funds provided by the Antiquarian Society
Reference Number: 1989.65
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/73707/manifest.json

Florence Virginia Berger and George Munson Curtis, American Church Silver of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries, with a Few Pieces of Domestic Plate, exh. cat. (Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1911), 14, cat. 109, pl. 5 (ill.), as Alms Basin.
E. Alfred Jones, The Old Silver of American Churches (Letchworth, England: Arden Press, 1913), 275, pl. 89 (ill.).
Gladys N. Hoover, The Elegant Royalls of Colonial New England (New York: Vantage Press, 1974), 101.
Patricia E. Kane, et al., Colonial Massachusetts Silversmiths and Jewelers (New Haven, CT: Yale University Art Gallery, 1998), 228.
Judith A. Barter, et al., American Arts at The Art Institute of Chicago: From Colonial Times to World War I (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 1998), 75–76, cat. 19 (ill.).
Judith A. Barter, Elizabeth McGoey, et al., American Silver in the Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 2016), 88, 105–7, cat. 35 (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. 35 (ill.).

Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, American Church Silver of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries, with a Few Pieces of Domestic Plate, Jul–Dec. 1911, cat. 109.
Art Institute of Chicago, Spiritual Expressions: Art for Private Contemplation and Public Ceremony, Nov. 22, 1995–Mar. 17, 1996, brochure only (ill.).

Commissioned by the First Church of Christ, Medford, MA from a cash bequest of Isaac Royall, Jr. (1719–1781), Medford, MA, 1781; consigned to Firestone and Parson, Inc., Boston, by 1987 [letter from David Firestone, Firestone and Parson, Nov. 25, 1987; copy in curatorial object file]; sold to Marshall Field V, Chicago, Mar. 11, 1988 [gallery invoice; copy in curatorial object file]; sold to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1989.

Cat. 35 Communion Dish, 1781

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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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