Chafing Dish

c. 1730

John Burt
American, 1692/93–1745/46
Boston

Chafing dishes were common in the colonies and closely resemble their English counterparts. The interior plate held hot coals, and the chafing dish was probably fitted with a small tray that rested on the scroll supports and supported a kettle or pot. The decorative pierced work around the rim of the dish allowed the heat of the coals to warm the tray. The hoof foot is typical of New England chafing dishes of the period.

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

Artist: John Burt
Title: Chafing 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.: c. 1730
Medium: Silver and wood
Inscriptions: Maker's mark twice on bottom, in shaped rectangle: J BURT Engraved on bottom: M / J = M Engraved on bottom: John C. Phillips / from his Mother / Nov. 5, 1915 / From the Phillips family / old silver
Dimensions: 10.2 × 15.2 × 30.5 cm (4 3/8 × 6 7/8 × 12 1/8 in.)
Credit Line: Purchased with funds provided by the Antiquarian Society through the Mr. and Mrs. Edwin A. Seipp Fund
Reference Number: 1952.1097
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/78611/manifest.json

Alice Winchester, “Silver Chafing Dishes by John Burt,” The Magazine Antiques 45, 5 (May 1954) p. 379, ill.
“American Silver Comes to London,” The Connoisseur 146, 587 (Sept. 1960), 30–1, ill.
Kathryn C. Buhler, “American Silver on View in London,” The Magazine Antiques, 128, 3 (Sept. 1960) p. 230.
David A. Hanks, “American Silver at The Art Institute of Chicago,” The Magazine Antiques 98, 3 (Sept. 1970), 418–22, ill.
Patricia E. Kane, “Colonial Massachusetts Silversmiths and Jewelers” (New Haven: Yale University Art Gallery, 1998) p. 251.
Christie’s, New York, “Important Silver,” sale cat. January 19, 2012, cited on p. 57, lot. 86.
Judith A. Barter, Elizabeth McGoey, et al., American Silver in the Art Institute of Chicago (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2016), cat. 19 (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. 19 (ill.).

Minneapolis Institute of Arts, French, English, and American Silver, June 9–July 15, 1956, cat. 179.
London, Christie’s, American Silver and Art Treasures, Aug. 24–Sept. 24, 1960, cat. 35.
Art Institute of Chicago, The Antiquarian Society: The First One Hundred Years, Apr. 23–June 19, 1977, cat. 176 (ill.).

Possibly Jonathan and Miriam Mason (m. 1747), Boston; William Phillips (1737-1772) and Margaret Wendell Phillips (1739-1823); by descent to their son, John Phillips; by descent to John C. Phillips, Cambridge, MA, 1915. With James Graham and Sons, New York, by 1952; sold to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1952.

Cat. 19 Chafing Dish, c. 1730

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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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