Charleston Loan Exhibition

25 were keen to purchase the latest from London. Examples such as the punch bowl with London smith Abraham Portal’s maker’s marks and the salver made in Samuel Courtauld’s workshop could very well have been found in a shop along side the pair of buckles made locally by John Miot (1740–1791). Charleston merchants received a wide range of luxury items in addition to silver plate. In 1751, Governor James Glen informed the London Board of Trade of the variety of goods found in South Carolina: “Plenty is often the parent of Luxury, and it will perhaps surprise your Lordships to be informed there is annually imported considerable quantities of fine laces of Flanders, the finest Dutch linnens [ sic ], and French cambricks, chintz, Hyson tea, and other East India goods, silks, gold and silver lace, &.” 1 In addition, Charlestonians received large quantities of tea, lacquered items and porcelain via the China trade. The South has one of the earliest traditions of importing Chinese porcelain, and Charleston’s citizens ordered large services from abroad to adorn their tables, parlors and even bedchambers. Extant examples and archeological evidence document the sophistication of these porcelains. Large sets, such the famille rose pseudo-tobacco leaf pattern (ca. 1770), which descended in the Ravenel family, and the brown-Fitzhugh pattern wares from the Manigualts are but just two examples. The market for ceramics and the potential for a viable Carolina-based porcelain manufactory obviously drew international attention. When selecting a colonial city in which to locate the first American ceramics manufactory, John Bartlam chose Charleston, prompting English manufacturer Josiah Wedgwood to express concern. In their eagerness to emulate English gentry, Charlestonians placed great importance on having their portraits painted. Portraiture served to codify family lineage: wealthy Carolinians often believed themselves to be extensions of the English gentry and sought to depict themselves in finery on a par with their Old World cousins. Thus, notable visiting artists such as Edward Savage (1761–1820) and Thomas Sully (English-born, 1783– 1872) were well patronized by wealthy merchants and planters and their families during their tenure in the city and painted portraits such as that of young Alicia Russell (1789–1840), daughter of wealthy merchant Nathaniel Russell (1738–1820). The city also supported one of the earliest landscape traditions in America. In addition to rendering finely painted miniatures of Charleston’s citizens, local artists such as Thomas Coram (1756– 1811) and Charles Fraser (1782–1860) painted estate portraits and local vistas in the English tradition. The true measure of sophistication and wealth in Charleston society was the commissioning of a portrait from a European master during the grand tour. In 1786, famed London artist George Romney painted an elegant, full-length portrait of Mary Rutledge Smith (1747–1837) and her son, Edward. This adored work was widely exhibited in Charleston during the nineteenth century and is considered one of the most significant American grand tour portraits. Blockades, the Embargo of 1807, the Non-Intercourse Acts, and the War of 1812 all resulted in economic depressions that destabilized Charleston’s artisan community. Northern cabinetmaking shops began shipping large amounts of furniture to Charleston (as well as to other southern ports); eventually this cargo began to replace local production. In reaction, some Charleston cabinetmakers entered the cabinet warehousing business on a limited basis by supplementing their own stock with northern-made imports. Just as Charleston- made furniture production declined by the mid-nineteenth century, so did the local manufacture of silver. By the 1830s, Charleston’s silversmiths began retailing goods made in the North, often stamping these wares with their own marks. Although the demand for locally produced goods declined, the city’s inhabitants sustained their standards of splendor and opulence with these imported goods. Brandy S. Culp Curator 1. Charles Jennett Weston Plowden, ed., “Answers from James Glen, Esq. Govr of South Carolina to the Queries from the Right Honourable the Lords Commissioners for Trade and Plantations,” Documents Connected with the History of South Carolina (London, 1865), 85.