Maker: Thomas H. Warner
Date:
c. 1805
Medium:
Silver alloy
Size:
Depth: 1 1/8″
Diameter: 18 1/8″
Majestic yet simple, this tray tells multiple tales. First is the story of skillful craftsmanship: Baltimore silversmith Thomas Warner hammered his largest known piece from a single silver ingot. He then added cast and applied elements.

Warner made the tray for Thomas Hollingsworth (1747–1815), a successful Baltimore merchant. Hollingsworth’s name is engraved on the back, but the initials JBM with a lion rampant decorate the front. Why? Hollingsworth’s daughter Ann married John Boucher Morris in 1817. Sometime after that, Hollingsworth’s initials were erased and changed to Morris. The back records four generations named “John B. Morris,” so we can’t say who—father, son, grandson, or great-grandson—made the change.

Purchased as the Gift of Frederica Kolker Saxon, Baltimore, In Honor of Her Father BMA 2009.195