Charleston Loan Exhibition

34 John Vanall (working in Charleston, 1747–1752) Gorget Charleston, SC, ca. 1750 Silver H. 3 fi/* x W. 5¾ inches Engraved: COL. C.C. PINCKNEY / 1776 ; stamped on reverse: I·VANALL Lent by The Charleston Museum, Charleston, SC, HM 1013 American gorgets were a fairly common sight among colonial American patriots. In South Carolina, however, they were far more than simple uniform accoutrements. Evolving over centuries, gorgets like this one shrank from larger, protective throat plates in suits of armor into ornamental symbols of rank. While British forces traditionally issued gorgets made from brass, silver became the metal of choice among fighting patriots. Furthermore, crescent- shaped gorgets mimicked those of French design rather than the bulbous, tear-dropped form of the British. Of course, the reason for these choices is clear: to sever all connections to England, not just in politics but in appearances as well. Having survived the war and his subsequent imprisonment after Charleston’s surrender in 1780, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney represented his home state at the Constitutional Convention in 1787 and was a key figure during the ratification of South Carolina’s state constitution in 1790. In 1800, Pinckney ran as the Federalist’s candidate to the office of Vice President of the United States, and became its presidential nominee in 1804. Thomas Jefferson, still benefitting from his popularity brought about by the Louisiana Purchase, defeated Pinckney by over 70 percent of the vote. It is unknown whether Charleston silversmith John Vanall made this gorget, engraved at a later date, specifically for Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, or if it was simply stock material purchased from his shop on Meeting Street. JGL Francis Butty and Nicholas Dumee (English, working, ca. 1758–1773) Epergne London, England, ca. 1771/1772 Silver H. 18¾ x W. 9 ‡/!^ x D. 8 fi/* inches Engraved with Middleton family arms; stamped on bottom: lion passant, crowned leopard’s head, date letter, and FB over ND Lent by Middleton Place Foundation, Charleston, SC, gift of Middleton family descendants In May 1768, four years after their marriage, Arthur Middleton (1742–1787) and his wife Mary Izard Middleton (1747–1814) sailed abroad on a three-year grand tour of Europe. When they returned to Charleston, they brought with them goods purchased during their travels, including over forty pieces of elegant plate. Among the silver was this outstanding epergne, with eight hanging baskets, all engraved with the Middleton coat of arms. The vast majority of Arthur and Mary Izard Middleton’s eighteenth-century silver has remained in the family, and most of it is currently exhibited at the House Museum at Middleton Place. A Revolutionary War partiot and signer of the Declaration of Independence, and third-generation colonial Carolina planter, Arthur Middleton inherited Middleton Place, established circa 1705, from his mother Mary Williams Middleton when she died in 1761. Arthur, just twenty at the time, had been in England for about eight years acquiring an education at Hackney, Westminster, Cambridge’s Trinity College and the Middle Temple and living with his uncle William Middleton at Crowfield, his family seat. Returning to Charleston in 1763, he assumed responsibility for Middleton Place. The silver epergne’s design, with its late-rococo naturalistic silver tree limbs and branches and the overall airiness of its delicately formed pierced silver baskets, foretells the emerging neoclassical fashion. Its design allowing it to be disassembled for travel suited perfectly the elegantly mobile lifestyle of the Middletons. MES