Teapot
Artist
Christian Wiltberger
(American, 1766-1851)
CultureAmerican
Dateca. 1785-1800
MediumSilver and wood
DimensionsOverall: 9 1/2 x 9 in. (24.1 x 22.9 cm)
Base: 3 3/8 in. (8.6 cm)
Base: 3 3/8 in. (8.6 cm)
InscribedMaker's mark in two locations on opposite sides of the plinth: C. Wiltberger. Engraved script monogram might be interpreted as: ACJ or even MF
Credit LineGift of Dorothy G. Tripician
Object number2002.17
Not on view
Label TextChristian Wiltberger
American (1766-1851)
Teapot, Philadelphia ca. 1785-1800
Silver and wood
Gift of Dorothy G. Tripicain 2002.17
This teapot, which apparently retains its original wood handle, is a superb example of a neoclassical urn-form teapot. Its maker, Christian Wiltberger, apprenticed under Philadelphia silversmith, Richard Humphreys (1750-1832). Humphries made the earliest known American neoclassical silver object in 1774-a tea urn commissioned by the First Continental Congress as a gift for its secretary.
ProvenanceMrs. Edward (Edith) Harrison, New Jersey, until 1947; bequested to Marjory Pray, ca. 1947; bequested to Dorothy G. Tripician, Virginia Beach, Virginia; Gift of Dorothy G. Tripician to the Chrysler Museum of Art, 2002.
Exhibition History"Reopening of the Joan P. Brock Galleries," Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Va., Opening in March of 2008.
ca. 1695
