Chafing Dish Maker: John Coney (American, 1655–1722)

ca. 1710

American Decorative Arts

On view, 1st floor, American Decorative Arts before 1900

Chafing dishes were filled with embers of charcoal that radiated heat and warmed the plates of food set atop them. This example has a wooden handle that allowed it to be easily lifted and wooden ball feet that prevented the hot metal from scaring the dining table. It was fabricated by the Boston silversmith John Coney and, according to tradition, was owned by Coney's daughter Mehitable, who married Francis Foxcroft in 1722. The delicate pierced band and base plate were both decorative and provided air circulation for the charcoal. This is the only known Coney chafing dish with an engraved center plate.

Medium

Silver

Dimensions

3 1/2 × 6 × 12 in. (8.9 × 15.24 × 30.48 cm)
other (Lip): 5 15/16 in. (15.1 cm)

Credit Line

Mabel Brady Garvan Collection

Accession Number

1930.952

Geography

Made in Boston, Massachusetts

Culture

American

Period

18th century

Classification

Containers

Disclaimer

Note: This electronic record was created from historic documentation that does not necessarily reflect the Yale University Art Gallery’s complete or current knowledge about the object. Review and updating of records is ongoing.

Provenance
Mehitable Foxcroft, Cambridge, Mass.; her daughter (?), Phoebe Foxcroft (1743-1812); her son, George Phillips, Andover, Mass.; his descendant, Samuel Phillips, Andover, Mass.; George C. Gebelein, Boston; Francis P. Garvan, New York, to 1930; Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Conn.
Bibliography

  • Patricia E. Kane, Colonial Massachusetts Silversmiths and Jewelers (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Art Gallery, 1998), 324.
  • Kathryn C. Buhler and Graham Hood, American Silver in the Yale University Art Gallery, 2 vols. (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Art Gallery, 1970), vol. 1, pp. 42–45, no. 36, ill.
  • John Marshall Phillips, "Masterpieces in American Silver in Public Collections: Part II, 1700–1750," Antiques 55, no. 2 (February 1949): 119, ill.
  • John Marshall Phillips, Masterpieces of New England Silver, 1650–1800: An Exhibition Held June 18 through September 10, 1939, Gallery of Fine Arts, Yale University (Boston: Harvard University Press, 1939), 26, no. 32.
  • Harvard Tercentenary Exhibition, exh. cat. (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University, 1936), 30–31, no. 110.
  • "Braziers as Collectibles," Antiques 24 (September 1933): 106–107, fig. 4.
  • Exhibition of Silversmithing by John Coney, exh. cat. (Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1932), no. 60.
  • Hermann F. Clarke, John Coney, Silversmith, 1655 - 1722 (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1932), no. 17.
  • George Christian Gebelein, "Early American Silver Brazier," Antiques 1, no. 5 (May 1922): 196, 284, ill.

Object copyright
No Copyright - United States
Additional information

Object/Work type

chafing dishes, utilitarian objects

Marks

"IC" crowned, coney below, in shield (on side to left of handle).

Technical metadata and APIs

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