A Handsome Cupboard of Plate: Early American Silver in the Cahn Collection

1. Accompanies the touring exhibition A Handsome Cupboard of Plate: Early American Silver in the Cahn Collection organized by, and starting at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts from December 1, 2012 - March 2013, moving onto the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, April 20, 2013 - November 3, 2013, the Missouri History Museum from November 23, 2013 - March 2, 2014 and finally to the The DeWitt Wallace Decorative Arts Museum, Colonial Williamsburg, from May 3, 2014 - May 25, 2015

Strength in design and fineness of craftsmanship unify the early American domestic and presentation silver assembled by Paul and Elissa Cahn and published together for the first time. Beginning in Boston with a caudle cup marked by Jeremiah Dummer, America's first native-born silversmith, and objects from the shop of patriot silversmith Paul Revere, the book then focuses on New York, where a distinctive style reflecting the Dutch heritage of that region emerged, and afterward on Philadelphia, where generations of the Quaker Richardson family supplied goods of the "best sort, but plain."

Pride of place is given to the work of New York Jewish silversmith Myer Myers and his shop, including a presentation waiter made for Theodorus Van Wyck. Accompanying a touring exhibition of the Cahn collection, the book encapsulates some of the ethnic, religious, and political diversity of early America and sets the silver in its social and historical context