Pitcher 1810 - 1820

This striking silver pitcher was created by Joseph Lownes, who lived from 1758 to 1820. Lownes was part of a community of artisans navigating the shifting political and economic landscape of the newly formed United States. Crafted during a period where the burgeoning American economy was deeply entangled with slavery, this pitcher embodies complex intersections of labor, wealth, and status. While its elegant form speaks to the refined tastes of its intended owners, we must also consider the hands whose labor extracted and shaped the silver from which it was made. Whose stories are not told by the gleam of its surface? This pitcher invites us to reflect on the values and material culture of early America, prompting us to ask critical questions about the legacies of inequality that continue to shape our world. It serves not only as a functional object but as a potent symbol ripe for interrogation.