Silver Sugar Urn
Touch Mark of George Christopher Dowig (1724-1807)
Baltimore, Maryland
Circa 1790
10 ½” tall
Commentary: Hollowware by George Dowig is extremely rare with only a few known examples having survived. He first appears in Philadelphia, records where he was identified variously as George Christopher Dorwig, George Dorwig and George Dowig, as early as 1765 and was listed as a silversmith and jeweler. By 1773 he seems to have relocated to Baltimore and established a shop on Market Street. In 1788 Dowig attempted to retire from his business by means of a lottery and advertised the terms of his offering in the Maryland Journal. He repeated the process in 1789 with a similar advertisement detailing the silver to be offered. Pleasants and Sill were able to locate only two examples of Dowig’s work and expressed some surprise at how little of his work has survived in light of his relatively long and apparently prosperous career. Subsequently a number of other examples of Dowig silver have been identified but little more information regarding his personal history has surfaced. A sugar urn with gallery that is virtually identical to this piece is in the collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. An early example of Dowig’s Philadelphia work can be found in the Stephen Girard Collection, Philadelphia and is described in the collection catalogue item #49. A pair of salts with a history in the Clymer Family of Philadelphia is in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston and was catalogued by Buhler as #517.
Condition: Period engraved initials. Excellent overall condition.
Price:sold
References:
American Silver 1655-1825 in the Museum of Fine Art Boston, Kathryn Buhler
The Stephen Girard Collection, Robert D. Schwarz
Pleasants and Sill, Maryland Silversmiths, 1715-1830.
