Nutmeg Grater 1705 - 1710

This small, silver nutmeg grater was crafted by William Cowell Senior, a prominent silversmith active in Boston during the late 17th and early 18th centuries. At the time, spices, including nutmeg, were highly valued, and this grater would have been a luxury item, reflecting the owner's wealth and status. Consider the global context in which the grater would have been used. Nutmeg, grown in the Banda Islands of Indonesia, was a product of the Dutch East India Company's brutal colonial exploitation. Looking at this object raises uncomfortable questions about how even the most intimate and domestic objects can connect us to histories of slavery, trade, and oppression. What stories would this object tell if it could speak?