Fine Philadelphia Neoclassical Coin Silver Ewer

first quarter 19th century, by Simon Chaudron (1758-1846), the ovoid body decorated with a finely chased palmette-band calyx and leaf-and-dart banded shoulder, with displayed eagle and laurel cartouche and palmette-mantled paterae, the waisted collar with integral spout and decorated with repousse palmette and anthemion, the hinged lid with applied leaf-and-laurel finial, the steeply arched flat handle with applied snake mounted to a large patera at the rim and an acanthus-frond-crested ram's masque on the body, the whole raised above a steeply domed chased acanthus-banded foot on a square plinth, with milled leaf-and-dart, annulated, laurel and ovolo banding throughout, the cartouche engraved "AMC" and "a Gift of Gratitude".
h. 12-5/8", l. 8-1/2", dia. 7"; 60.20 t. oz.

Literature: A nearly identical ewer by Chaudron was shown in the 1993-1994 exhibition Classical Taste in America 1800-1840 in Baltimore, Charlotte and Houston, item number 114., and is illustrated in the exhibition catalogue by Wendy A. Cooper, Classical Taste in America 1800-1840 (New York: Abbeville Press for the Baltimore Museum of Art, 1993), p. 150.

Several shallow dents and bumps on the body, the largest a 1-1/2" x 1" thumbprint-sized dent on one side above one of the palmette paterae; the next largest is a 3/4" x 7-1/8" fingerprint depression on the upper edge of the calyx. These and the other dents are such that relatively simple and minimally intrusive restoration would be of significant benefit. One of the four bolts attaching the plinth to the foot has some deep (wrench?) scratches but is intact, the threaded post is undamaged. Otherwise, in good condition with the expected patina of age but no breaks or repairs noted. Superb chasing. Marked, on the underside, in a ribbon "CHAUDRON"; mark lightly worn but fully legible.