Covered Box 1712 - 1754

This covered box was crafted from silver by Joseph Leddel Sr., a silversmith active in New York during the late 17th and early 18th centuries. Leddel’s work provides a glimpse into the material culture of early colonial America, a period marked by the burgeoning wealth of merchants and landowners against a backdrop of complex social hierarchies and the exploitation of enslaved people. Silver objects like this were not merely functional, they were potent symbols of status and belonging. The box, with its understated elegance, speaks to the values of a society in transition, where traditional European forms were adapted to a new American context. Consider the hands that might have opened this box, the secrets it might have held, or the small treasures it was entrusted to protect. It is both a relic of a bygone era and a silent witness to the ongoing negotiation of identity and power.