Sugar Urn and Cream Pot

c. 1793

Daniel Van Voorhis
American, 1751–1824
New York

The style of this tea set (1950.1584 and 1950.1648a-c) was a popular one in New York at the turn of the 19th century. The shapes and decoration of the set were inspired by classical Roman designs unearthed at Herculaneum and Pompeii during the 1730s, and reinterpretation of the finds were disseminated in the popular furniture designs of Thomas Sheraton and George Hepplewhite. The bright-cut engraving is typical of the period. The Van Voorhis pieces employ a large drapery swag as a background to the central motif containing engraved initials of the original owner. The companion tea caddy (1950.1585) was made later to match the three-piece set; though the engraving on the caddy looks the same as those on the rest of the set, close examination reveals that it is by a different hand.

Status: On View, Gallery 168
Department: Arts of the Americas

Artist: Daniel Van Voorhis
Title: Sugar Urn and Cream Pot
Place: New York City (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. 1793
Medium: Silver
Inscriptions: Marked on bottom, in rectangle, with two eagles within diamonds appearing above and below: D. V. VOORHIS Engraved at center on front of each: R. B. M. N.
Dimensions: Cream pot: 18.7 × 5.7 × 14 cm (7 3/8 × 2 1/4 × 5 1/2 in.); 181.3 g Sugar urn: 24.1 × 10.2 × 10.2 cm (9 1/2 × 4 × 4 in.); 394.6 g
Credit Line: Purchased with funds provided by the Antiquarian Society through Mrs. Cyrus H. Adams and Mrs. James C. Hutchins Jr.
Reference Number: 1950.1648.1-3
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/93243/manifest.json

The Antiquarian Society (Art Institute of Chicago, 1951), no. 58 (ill.).
Meyric R. Rogers, “American Decorative Arts at The Art Institute of Chicago,” The Magazine Antiques LXXIV, 1 (July 1958), 55 (ill.).
Katherine McClinton, Collecting American 19th Century Silver, (New York, 1968), 17 (ill.).
Harold Osborne ed, The Oxford Companion to the Decorative Arts (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1975) p. 743 (ill.).
Milo Naeve, Classical Presence in American Art (Art Institute 1978) p. 21 (ill.).
Arthur Pulos, American Design Ethic, A History of Industrial Design to 1940 (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1983) p. 43 (ill.).
Judith A. Barter, et al., American Arts at The Art Institute of Chicago: From Colonial Times to World War I (The Art Institute of Chicago, 1998), 112–113, no. 41.
Judith A. Barter, Elizabeth McGoey, et al., American Silver in the Art Institute of Chicago (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2016), cat. 39 (ill.).
Elizabeth McGoey, ed., American Silver in the Art Institute of Chicago (Art Institute of Chicago, 2018), https://publications.artic.edu/americansilver/reader/collection/section/6, cat. 39 (ill.).

Milwaukee Art Institute, Traditions of American Silver, Feb. 13–Mar. 19, 1952, cats. 38–39.
Art Institute of Chicago, The Antiquarian Society: The First One Hundred Years, Apr. 23–June 19, 1977, cat. 199 (ill.).

With Children’s Memorial Hospital, Chicago, by 1950; with White Elephant Shop, Children’s Memorial Hospital, Chicago, 1950; sold to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1950.

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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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