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Lot Essay
The initials MG are for Mary Gateaux (1689 - 1783), née Rudderow, who was first married to Nicholas Gateaux in 1714, then Joshua Maddox (d. 1759) in 1728. Joshua Maddox's estate inventory lists 200 ounces of silver, an exceptionally large amount of silver for the period. The later initials around the body are for the subsequent owners of this porringer as detailed in the provenance for this lot, beginning with Mary Maddox (1732 - 1784) who married Councilman John Wallace (1717 - 1783) of Philadelphia, a descendant of King James I.
Joshua Maddox's extensive inventory of silver included a salver on foot by Henry Pratt engraved with the Maddox coat-of-arms, and with later foliate monogram EBW, block initials M / IM, and monogram LCB, which was also passed down through a similar line of decent as the present lot before being sold by Mrs. Lee Wallace Peck, Christie's, New York, 16 January 1998, lot 85 for a then record price for American silver at auction, and then again in The Collection of Roy and Ruth Nutt: Highly Important American Silver, Sotheby's, New York, 24 January 2015, lot 642. A further salver on foot by Johannis Nys engraved with the initials MG for Mary Gateaux is illustrated in H. R. Dietrich III and D. M. Rebuck, In Pursuit of History: A Lifetime of Collecting Colonial American Art and Artifacts, New Haven, 2019, pp. 202-203.
While porringers from this period were often made in pairs, it appears that in this instance three were made by Nys for Mary Gateaux. One, engraved to the handle with the initials MG, is in the Mabel Brady Garvan Collection at the Yale University Art Gallery (Inv. No. 1930.1200), and another, engraved to the handle with the initials MG and later engraved to the front with foliate monogram EBW, was sold in The Collection of Roy and Ruth Nutt: Highly Important American Silver, Sotheby's, New York, 24 January 2015, lot 643. The porringer in the collection of the Yale University Art Gallery was exhibited at the Philadelphia Museum of Art exhibition Philadelphia Silver 1682-1800 along with one of the other two porringers in 1956.
Joshua Maddox's extensive inventory of silver included a salver on foot by Henry Pratt engraved with the Maddox coat-of-arms, and with later foliate monogram EBW, block initials M / IM, and monogram LCB, which was also passed down through a similar line of decent as the present lot before being sold by Mrs. Lee Wallace Peck, Christie's, New York, 16 January 1998, lot 85 for a then record price for American silver at auction, and then again in The Collection of Roy and Ruth Nutt: Highly Important American Silver, Sotheby's, New York, 24 January 2015, lot 642. A further salver on foot by Johannis Nys engraved with the initials MG for Mary Gateaux is illustrated in H. R. Dietrich III and D. M. Rebuck, In Pursuit of History: A Lifetime of Collecting Colonial American Art and Artifacts, New Haven, 2019, pp. 202-203.
While porringers from this period were often made in pairs, it appears that in this instance three were made by Nys for Mary Gateaux. One, engraved to the handle with the initials MG, is in the Mabel Brady Garvan Collection at the Yale University Art Gallery (Inv. No. 1930.1200), and another, engraved to the handle with the initials MG and later engraved to the front with foliate monogram EBW, was sold in The Collection of Roy and Ruth Nutt: Highly Important American Silver, Sotheby's, New York, 24 January 2015, lot 643. The porringer in the collection of the Yale University Art Gallery was exhibited at the Philadelphia Museum of Art exhibition Philadelphia Silver 1682-1800 along with one of the other two porringers in 1956.