Box 1753 - 1776

This silver box was made by Elias Pelletreau, a silversmith working in New York in the 18th century. Pelletreau was part of a network of artisans and merchants in the growing city, a community whose wealth was increasingly tied to transatlantic trade. Silver objects like this box were not merely functional; they were potent symbols of status and taste. The understated elegance of the design, combined with the intrinsic value of the material, communicated a message of refined gentility. The box would have been commissioned, likely to celebrate an important occasion such as a marriage. Examining period account books, probate inventories, and family papers can reveal much about the lives and social aspirations of those who commissioned and used such objects. These sources help us understand the subtle ways in which material culture reflected and reinforced social hierarchies in colonial New York. Art isn't created in a vacuum.