Trencher salts by Jacob Gerritse Lansing (1681-1767), Albany, 1705-40. Silver. Gift of Marjorie D. (Mrs. Richard C.) Rockwell, and AIHA Purchase, 1942.

 

Shining Objects From Our Past

Silver From The Collection Of The Albany Institute

ALBANY, N.Y -- Highlights from the silver collection of the Albany Institute of History & Art (AIHA) are the focus of "Shining Objects From Our Past:Silver From the Collection of The Albany Institute." The exhibition runs through May.

More than 50 objects from the institute's collection of 1,500 pieces of silver as well as portraits, photographs, and ephemera from the collection are on view.

The exhibition presents new information about Albany silversmiths and their customers that has been uncovered in recent years by Albany Institute staff and scholars.

Much of the information presented in the exhibition was researched and prepared by silver scholar, Dr Deborah Dependahl Waters, curator of decorative arts at the Museum of the City of New York. A recognized authority on New York silver, Waters has written several entries in the museum's catalogue, 200 Years of Collecting.

The exhibition represents the best examples of pieces made for and owned by people who lived in Albany during three centuries. The pieces are arranged in chronological order from the Seventeen Century to 1976.

In addition, the museum is re-releasing a limited number of copies of Albany Silver, 1652-1825. First published in 1964, the catalogue was written by AIHA director emeritus Norman S. Rice when he was the curator of the Albany Institute of History & Art and accompanied the museum's last major silver exhibition, which was held that year.

The size and character of Albany have changed considerably over the more than three centuries of its life as a community. The basic rhythms of life continue, but the forces that interact with peoples' lives are changing. A constant in the life and character of Albany has been an economy based on trade. The people of Albany have been consumed with the buying and selling of goods and services -- first with Native Americans, then among themselves; later with settlers in upstate New York; and more recently, a growing market of national consumers to spend their money.

The silver shown in this exhibition reflects the history of Albany as a regional center of silver-making. Beginning in the early Eighteenth Century, Albany became home to a growing number of silversmiths and watchmakers. Jacob Gerritse Lansing, Koenraet Ten Eyck, Isaac & George Hutton, Robert Shepherd and William Boyd were among the most famous Albany silversmiths who made holloware, flatware and trade silver.

With the growth of trade and population early in the Nineteenth Century came new wealth and exploration of ways for consumers to spend their money. The ownership, display and use of silver became an expression of growing affluence, gradually spreading to the middle class. By the late Nineteenth Century, local silver manufacturing declined in the face of increasing competition from larger manufacturers in New York City, Meriden, Connecticut and Providence, Rhode Island.

As Albany grew in the post-Revolutionary War era, it became home to a large number of enterprising craftsmen and artists. The Huttons were considered among Albany's most significant and prolific silversmiths of the Federal era.

The silversmiths, jewelers and engravers Isaac Hutton (1766-1855) and his brother George (1773-1855) owned a shop that produced and sold fashionable silver, military swords and epuipage, ironmongery, a wide variety of imported goods, and general merchandise. Not only was Isaac Hutton considered to be the father of Albany silversmith, but he also played an important role in the community in which he served.

In 1793 he was elected the first treasurer of the Albany Mechanics Society. In 1803 Isaac was elected director of the Albany Waterworks, and in 1804 was one of the incorporators, or original subscribers, of the Society for the Promotion of the Useful Arts, the predecessor of the present Albany Institute of History & Art. It is suspected that George was only a business partner who attended the shop, and not a silversmith. With the proceeds of their manufacture and sale of silverware and jewelry, the Huttons entered cotton textile manufacturing. They did not prosper and by 1817, they went bankrupt.

Many apprentices from the Hutton shop worked in Albany and throughout New York. The shop had a lasting influence on manufacturing and retailing. One famous pair of silversmiths to come from the Hutton shop was Robert Shepherd and William Boyd.

The Albany Institute of History & Art is at 125 Washington Avenue in downtown Albany. Museum hours are Wednesday through Sunday, noon until 5 pm. Telephone 518/463-4478.