Teapot, Sugar Dish, Cream Pitcher
Jacob Gerritse Lansing (1737-1803)
Albany
Silver, c. 1765-1775
AIHA Collection by exchange
1949.34.1-3a,b

The social change that most influenced the forms produced by silversmiths during the late 17th and 18th centuries was the consumption of exotic beverages--coffee, tea, and chocolate--brought from faraway lands. Silversmiths used the simple forms of Oriental ceramics as models for the new sugar and tea containers, and embellished them to suit Western tastes. Frequently, as in the service pictured here, the silver pieces did not match, for a tea set en suite was a novelty in America through the 1790s.

Albany silversmith Jacob Gerritse Lansing, whose marks appear on the teapot in this service, continued the family silversmithing tradition inaugurated by his grandfather and namesake, Jacob Gerritse Lansing (1681-1767) and his uncle and father-in-law, Jacob Lansing Jr. (1714-1791). The three pieces of this service belonged to various members of the Lansing family; although the creampot and sugar dish lack touchmarks, they have been attributed to the younger Lansing on the basis of their provenance.

Faience