Date: Fri 19-Mar-1999

Publication: Ant

Author: LISA

Quick Words:

Objects

Full Text:

Shining Objects From Our Past: Silver From The Collection Of The Albany

Institute

with 3 cuts

ALBANY, N.Y -- Highlights from the silver collection of the Albany Institute

of History & Art (AIHA) are the focus of "Shining Objects From Our Past:Silver

From the Collection of The Albany Institute." The exhibition runs through May.

More than 50 objects from the institute's collection of 1,500 pieces of silver

as well as portraits, photographs, and ephemera from the collection are on

view.

The exhibition presents new information about Albany silversmiths and their

customers that has been uncovered in recent years by Albany Institute staff

and scholars.

Much of the information presented in the exhibition was researched and

prepared by silver scholar, Dr Deborah Dependahl Waters, curator of decorative

arts at the Museum of the City of New York. A recognized authority on New York

silver, Waters has written several entries in the museum's catalogue, 200

Years of Collecting.

The exhibition represents the best examples of pieces made for and owned by

people who lived in Albany during three centuries. The pieces are arranged in

chronological order from the Seventeen Century to 1976.

In addition, the museum is re-releasing a limited number of copies of Albany

Silver, 1652-1825. First published in 1964, the catalogue was written by AIHA

director emeritus Norman S. Rice when he was the curator of the Albany

Institute of History & Art and accompanied the museum's last major silver

exhibition, which was held that year.

The size and character of Albany have changed considerably over the more than

three centuries of its life as a community. The basic rhythms of life

continue, but the forces that interact with peoples' lives are changing. A

constant in the life and character of Albany has been an economy based on

trade. The people of Albany have been consumed with the buying and selling of

goods and services -- first with Native Americans, then among themselves;

later with settlers in upstate New York; and more recently, a growing market

of national consumers to spend their money.

The silver shown in this exhibition reflects the history of Albany as a

regional center of silver-making. Beginning in the early Eighteenth Century,

Albany became home to a growing number of silversmiths and watchmakers. Jacob

Gerritse Lansing, Koenraet Ten Eyck, Isaac & George Hutton, Robert Shepherd

and William Boyd were among the most famous Albany silversmiths who made

holloware, flatware and trade silver.

With the growth of trade and population early in the Nineteenth Century came

new wealth and exploration of ways for consumers to spend their money. The

ownership, display and use of silver became an expression of growing

affluence, gradually spreading to the middle class. By the late Nineteenth

Century, local silver manufacturing declined in the face of increasing

competition from larger manufacturers in New York City, Meriden, Connecticut

and Providence, Rhode Island.

As Albany grew in the post-Revolutionary War era, it became home to a large

number of enterprising craftsmen and artists. The Huttons were considered

among Albany's most significant and prolific silversmiths of the Federal era.

The silversmiths, jewelers and engravers Isaac Hutton (1766-1855) and his

brother George (1773-1855) owned a shop that produced and sold fashionable

silver, military swords and epuipage, ironmongery, a wide variety of imported

goods, and general merchandise. Not only was Isaac Hutton considered to be the

father of Albany silversmith, but he also played an important role in the

community in which he served.

In 1793 he was elected the first treasurer of the Albany Mechanics Society. In

1803 Isaac was elected director of the Albany Waterworks, and in 1804 was one

of the incorporators, or original subscribers, of the Society for the

Promotion of the Useful Arts, the predecessor of the present Albany Institute

of History & Art. It is suspected that George was only a business partner who

attended the shop, and not a silversmith. With the proceeds of their

manufacture and sale of silverware and jewelry, the Huttons entered cotton

textile manufacturing. They did not prosper and by 1817, they went bankrupt.

Many apprentices from the Hutton shop worked in Albany and throughout New

York. The shop had a lasting influence on manufacturing and retailing. One

famous pair of silversmiths to come from the Hutton shop was Robert Shepherd

and William Boyd.

The Albany Institute of History & Art is at 125 Washington Avenue in downtown

Albany. Museum hours are Wednesday through Sunday, noon until 5 pm. Telephone

518/463-4478.