This year the annual Discovering American Art lecture series focuses on silver and the artisans who produced elegant but useful pieces in early Annapolis.
Annapolis was a thriving colony in the mid-18th century. Though the American colonists grew to resent the British, they desired the amenities of the British lifestyle. The designs of decorative pieces, furniture, ceramics, and silver that flourished during the “Golden Age” of Annapolis (1760s-1770s), were modelled on examples of earlier periods. Annapolis could claim 28 silversmiths who were accounted for in the years between 1720 and 1850, but the evidence of their work is rare. The work of only 14 silversmiths survives today.
Two scholars of early Maryland life and artistry will speak; their lectures expand our understanding and appreciation for the exhibition Silver in the Golden Age of Annapolis currently on view at Hammond-Harwood House. The exhibition highlights over 80 silver objects, as well as portraits, manuscripts, shop drawings, and manuscripts of 14 silversmiths: James, Sr. and John Chalmers, William and Charles Faris, Cesar Ghiselin, Jeremiah Hughes, John Inch, Peter Kirkwood, William McParlin, Samuel Soumaien, Thomas Sparrow, Charles Tinges, Philip Syng, and William Whetcroft. This is the first time Annapolis silversmith have been exhibited in Annapolis. Lending institutions include the Baltimore Museum of Art, Carlyle House, Historic Annapolis, Inc., Maryland State Archives, Maryland Center for History and Culture, Winterthur Museum, Garden and Library and many private collectors.
An exhibition catalogue is available for purchase.
Price: $55 | Members: $50