Displaying items by tag: South Carolina

Museum of Early Southern Decorative Art’s founder, Frank Horton, purchased this silver cann marked by Charleston, South Carolina, silversmith Lucas Stoutenburgh (1691–1743) in the 1960s. It is boldly engraved with a coat of arms featuring a rampant lion placed between eight cross-crosslets and crested with a combed cockatrice rising from a ducal coronet. Whose arms were these? Horton wrote to the College of Arms in London, England, in an attempt to identify the family the crest represented. They responded that the coat of arms was identifiable, but that the cost for the research would be greater than the £20 he enclosed.1

Charleston, South Carolina, is fortunate to have many of its residents and institutions focused on preserving its history and architectural heritage. One of the wealthiest ports during the colonial period, large numbers of talented artisans produced luxury goods for their sophisticated local clientele. Unfortunately, much of the furniture and decorative arts made during this golden era either no longer survive or have been dispersed (see pages 298–299), leaving scant record of what was produced and owned. One individual—businessman and Charleston native John M. Rivers Jr.—set out to reclaim the city’s decorative heritage and has made a concerted effort to acquire and return locally made furniture, silver, and other objects that tell the story of Charleston and its inhabitants.