|
A
SELECTION OF AUCTION HIGHLIGHTS
AN AMERICAN SILVER-HILTED SWORD BY WILLIAM GILBERT
|
|
|
Lot
A Rare and Historic American Silver-Hilted Sword by William Gilbert
With Provenance of Lt. Abraham Bancker, First Battalion New York Rangers
HILT: Lion pommel silver hilt by William Gilbert of New York (signed on accompanying silver scabbard mount) ca. 1777 of simple knob capstan and finely executed lion head with inset jeweled eyes of faceted red garnets in each socket, detailed muzzle and deeply flowing mane; spiral-channeled turned “twisted” ivory grip stained green; small base ferrule above an elliptical floating guard cast in bronze and heavily silver plated with two openings on either side and finely engraved on obverse and reverse, the smooth inboard edge with a thin iron strip inset; outside edge scalloped; top of guard decorated in a raised diamond motif on one edge; the central surface with distinctly intricate cross-hatched design to ferrule then a rosette design opening to shell motifs on the quillons, upper quillon pierced at end for chain guard; engraved decorations repeated on the reverse.
BLADE: Unmarked with wide fuller and false edge.
THROAT: Silver top scabbard mount with ring and ruffled bottom edge to locket; decorated with simple inscribed rules, engraved “Abraham B / Bancker” in script on one side and “Wm Gilbert / Maker” in block letters on reverse.
Blade measures 25 3/8”; sword and hilt 31 1/2” overall.
Sold for $61,000
William Gilbert and the New York Silversmiths
Silversmith William Gilbert (active 1767-1818) was a prominent member of the close-knit community of the city’s most important silver craftsmen and an ardent and active patriot during the Revolutionary War. Of Dutch decent (as was his brother-in-law, silversmith Ephraim Brasher, of “Brasher Doubloon” renown), it is unknown, as is much with America’s early silversmiths, to whom William Gilbert originally served his apprenticeship. However, close examination of Gilbert and Brasher’s silver craft reveals such distinct similarities of style in much of their work, particularly with silver hilts, that a common source in their training. Indeed, the work of Gilbert, Brasher and Brasher’s business partner John Bailey (maker of a sword for George Washington), provides a case of these silversmiths providing a distinctly New York style to the craft. A comparison of the present sword with one strongly attributed to Brasher in the Lattimer family collection (see Hartzler pg. 20) reveals the common characteristics of a thin iron strip inset into the inner edge of guards, their elliptical shape, and the use of arsenic-stained turned ivory in the grips. Further comparison with the examples of John Bailey’s work (see Peterson nos. 28 and 29) and in particular the Gilbert sword cataloged as no. 32 therein, as well as the silver hilt attributed to Brasher sold at Doyle New York on May 1, 2007, again yields stylistic similarities, particularly in the guards and grips.
All three silversmiths provided work for George Washington, either through direct purchase or from third party commission. The “battle sword” by John Bailey (the most prolific of the circle by far, he maintained a shop in Fishkill throughout much of the War) for General Washington has been in the Smithsonian since 1843. Brasher’s work is documented in a receipt for silver skewers and Gilbert contributed the customary gold box in which Washington received the “Freedom of the City” from the New York City Council in 1784.
Thoroughly a patriot, Gilbert was active politically and militarily during the Revolution. In1775 he served as one of the sixty members of the Committee of Observation and was later elected to the prominent Committee of One Hundred, which superseded the former and managed city affairs during the earlier years of the War (Abraham Bancker’s father Evert was also a member.) Serving in such an ad hoc body naturally forced his family to evacuate during the British occupation. It is likely the Brasher family (Brasher’s wife Ann was Gilbert’s sister) joined the Gilbert’s in exile in Connecticut or Westchester, possible locations for the sword’s manufacture. The brothers-in-law were no strangers to the use of a sword as well, as they were enlisted together in Colonel John Lasher's regiment of New York militia, a unit that saw action in the Battle of Long Island.
Both men returned to New York sometime in1783. On November 26 of that year, following the British retreat from the city, General George Washington was presented with "The Address of the Citizens of New York, who have returned from exile, in behalf of themselves and their suffering Brethren" thanking him for defeating the British and allowing the return of the city’s exiles. Among the signers were William Gilbert and Ephraim Brasher.
A Remarkable Rediscovery
The present sword and locket would have been lost had they not been part of the famed collection formed by the late Radford Curdy, former Dutchess County Historian, whose expertise on Colonial America, and the American Revolution in particular, was well known among those collectors that shared his interests. Collecting Americana in depth, and with a focus on the Hudson Valley, Curdy used his considerable research skills in genealogy to trace and purchase items directly from local families. His interests encompassed not only printed and manuscript material, but relics and objects of appropriate history and provenance. Curdy’s collection of Revolutionary War material, the result of a lifetime of careful though quiet and often secretive acquisition, was dispersed by a local auctioneer who retrieved it from a paid storage facility three years after his death in 2002. Originally offered as separate lots, it was through pleasant circumstance and the attention of the present owner that this Gilbert sword and its locket were rightfully reunited.
Thus collectors are provided with an opportunity to acquire one of the very few surviving examples of a signed sword by this important New York City silversmith and patriot. In fact, research for this lot has yielded only two other examples, one in a museum collection (see below) and another, a short sword, in the Lattimer Family collection.
The “Fisher Gay” Sword
Had the relationship of locket and sword gone unrecognized at the Curdy sale, attribution to William Gilbert would have easily been provided through cursory comparison to a signed example in the collection of the Stanley Whitman House Museum in Farmington, Connecticut. In Harold Peterson’s landmark 1955 Corcoran Gallery exhibition (which displayed in a mere 80 examples the majority of American Silver Hilts then known), this sword with turned ivory grips and four slotted floating guard is listed as no. 32 and signed by Gilbert on the locket. It is virtually identical to the present lot.
On the obverse of the locket is the owner’s name inscribed “Fisher Gay”while “Wm Gilbert Maker” is inscribed in script on the reverse. Sharing the elliptical shape and decorations on their slotted guards, turned and green stained ivory grips and the details of the lions head, the two swords resemble one another so closely that any deviation from their common design is apparent only after the most careful examination and when seen together. But variations are present, as one would expect in any careful craft even by the same workshop or hand. The capstan of the “Fisher Gay” is slightly more prominent, the ivory of the Farmington sword is either not as deeply stained or more heavily faded than the Bancker example. While the former guard is of solid silver, that of the Bancker is of cast bronze heavily plated with silver. The date of 1775 on the Fisher Gay’s blade might give some clue as to the difference in materials, when one takes into account the circumstances under which the Bancker sword was produced. Gilbert was in exile from his home and workshop in New York at the time (Bailey’s incidentally had been burned) and likely had some difficulty procuring silver during the Revolutionary date of its manufacture.
Abraham B. Bancker
William Gilbert’s contemporary reputation was such that one would reasonably expect that the original owner of his work to be a gentleman of merit in New York. The ownership of Abraham Belen Bancker provides just such a history to the sword, placing it within Revolutionary War era New York and in hands that helped define the city. His public service and that of his father also intersected with that of William Gilbert.
Abraham Boelen Bancker was born of Dutch descent in New York City and baptized in the Dutch Reformed Church September 25, 1754. The family resided on Staten Island and his father Evert, owned a prominent mercantile business in the city from 1769 until the Revolution, mainly furnishing supplies to the British Army and effectively holding the position of barrack master for the city of New York. Evert was chosen (along with William Gilbert) to serve on the Committee of One Hundred at the outbreak of the War and was later elected deputy to several of the Provincial Congresses of New York.
Abraham followed his father’s patriotic example; at the beginning of the Revolution he was third lieutenant of the Rangers in the First Battalion of New York under Colonel Lasher (the same unit in which Gilbert and Brasher served). He was later in the First Regiment of the Line under Colonel Goose Van Schaick and was commissary of prisoners from 1777 to 1779.
He followed his military career with a political one after the Revolution, serving as the “careful and respected” clerk of the Senate of the State of New York from 1784-1802. As Senate clerk, he was part of the committee that granted the charter to Columbia University. But Bancker also served on a national scale, being appointed Secretary of the Committee to the Convention that ratified the Federal Constitution in 1788, where he seems to have taken an antifederalist stance. He died in 1806 after an abrupt illness and is buried in Kingston churchyard next to his father. (Had he lived another three years he would have seen William Gilbert elected to the state Senate. ) The Bancker family papers are at the New York Historical Society, providing a primary source for New York City’s role in the Constitutional debate of the 1780’s.
The present sword represents a rare opportunity to acquire a truly evocative confluence between historic New York City silver craft of great skill by one patriot of the Revolution and the provenance of prominent ownership by another.
Bibliography:
Banker, Howard J. The Bancker or Banker Families of America. Rutland, 1909.
Doyle New York.
Hartzler, Daniel. Silver Mounted Swords. The Lattimer Family Collection. New York, 2000.
Niles, Hezekiah. Centennial Offering: Republication of the Principles and Acts of the Revolution in America. Chicago, 1876
Peterson, Harold. The American Sword 1775-1945. Mineola, 2003.
Roberts, James, ed. New York in the Revolution as colony and state. Albany, 1898.
|
FURNITURE AND DECORATIONS FROM OTHER COLLECTIONS
|
|
|
Lot 2201
Gothic Revival Mahogany Tall Case Clock
Mid 19th century
The peaked hood with urn finials and molded tracery, the circular dial with two subsidiary dials, the glass inset pointed arched door with molded tracery, the case mounted with turned ornaments above a panel base ending in a plinth.
Height 9 feet 7 1/2 inches.
Sold for $23,750
|
|
|
Lot 2046
Chippendale Blue Painted Corner Cupboard
Circa 1820
The molded and dentilated cornice above a frieze with applied moldings, the glazed door opening to shelves, the lower paneled door opening to a single shelf, with molded edge door surround and the case with molded edges.
Height 8 feet, width 48 inches, depth 24 inches.
Provenance:
Northwood, Cambridge, New York
Leigh Keno American Antiques
Sold for $16,250
|
|
|
Lot 2014
Shellwork Sailor's Valentine
In two parts, each with radiating and concentric patterns, in a stained pine and glass octagonal case.
Diameter 13 3/4 inches.
Sold for $11,875
|
|
|
Lot 2163
Staffordshire Pearlware Equestrian Group of The Duke of Cumberland
Circa 1820
The figure in Roman dress, the horse with front legs on a rocky support, on a leaf molded architectural plinth.
Height 15 3/4 inches, width 9 1/2 inches.
Sold for $11,875
|
|
|
Lot 2108
Painted and Carved Wood Model of a Locomobile
Height 26 inches, width 67 inches.
Sold for $11,875
|
|
|
Lot 2077
American Gothic Revival Mahogany Armoire
Probably New York, circa 1850
The molded straight cornice with tracery, above a conforming case enclosing doors with panels of tracery and flanking clustered columns, opening to reveal drawers, raised on double ogee bracket feet.
Height 8 feet 5 inches, width 67 inches, depth 29 1/2 inches.
Sold for $8,125
|
|
|
Lot 2229
Federal Inlaid Mahogany Serpentine Front Sideboard
New York, early 19th century
With three frieze drawers above two cupboard doors flanked by deep drawers, raised on icicle inlaid tapering legs.
Height 41 1/2 inches, width 6 feet 1 inch, depth 25 inches.
Sold for $7,500
|
|
|
Lot 2132
Two English Pottery Figures of Squirrels
Late 18th/early 19th century
One decorated in Pratt colors of ochre, green and brown, each nibbling on a nut, on a naturalistically molded base.
Height 7 inches.
Sold for $7,500
|
PRINTS
|
|
|
Lot 2132
After John James Audubon
Ivory-Billed Woodpecker
Hand-colored etching, engraving and aquatint by R. Havell, 1829, on J. Whatman dated 1832, plate LXVI from The Birds of America.
Sheet 37 5/8 x 24 7/8 inches
Estimate: $20,000-30,000
Sold for $37,000
|
PAINTINGS
|
|
|
Lot 2309
Matthew Harris Jouett
American, 1788-1827
Self Portrait
Oil on canvas
26 x 21 inches
Provenance:
The artist
Thence by descent to the present owner
Exhibited:
Louisville, Kentucky, J.B. Speed Memorial Museum, All Known Paintings by Matthew Harris Jouett, 1939, no. 239
Matthew Jouett executed four self-portraits in his lifetime, of which one was destroyed by fire in 1845. The present example is the original unfinished self-portrait sketch, listed as #241 in the 1939 exhibition catalogue, All Known Paintings by Matthew Harris Jouett. It is not the version reproduced on the catalogue cover.
Sold for $28,000
|
|
|
Lot 2387
Wendell Ferdinand Macy
American, 1845-1913
Boat House, 1892
Signed Wendell Macy and dated 1892 (lr)
Oil on canvas laid to masonite
12 1/4 x 18 inches
Provenance:
Descended through the family of the artist to the present owner.
Sold for $7,500
|
|
|
Lot 2357
Karl Friedrich Christian Welsch
German, 1828-1904
In the Tetons, 1869
Signed F. G. Welsch and dated 1869 (lr)
Oil on canvas
43 1/4 x 31 inches
Property from the Collection of Edward Eberstadt & Sons
Estimate: $2,500-3,500
Sold for $6,250
|
|
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
