Ice Pitcher

Silver objects have been made in America since the early part of the colonial era. Since they not only were symbolic of status and power, but themselves constituted wealth, silver objects often reflect the finest workmanship and the newest styles. As the tradition of the craftsman’s shop gave way to the factory in the nineteenth century, silver became more widely available to the growing middle class, and the variety of its forms and uses expanded, as well. The Brooklyn Museum’s collection of silver spans these eras, from the craft production of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, through the industrialization of the nineteenth, and into the revival of interest in the craft process in the twentieth. You can see additional silver from the collection in the Decorative Arts galleries on the fourth floor.