Sugar Bowl with Lid

During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, sugar from large plantations worked by enslaved Africans in Barbados and Jamaica was one of the most lucrative commodities for British merchants and landowners.

Myer Myers, the owner of the silver workshop in New York City where this covered sugar bowl was created, was the only Jewish silversmith in the city. Interpreting European forms in functional wares, he also supplied the city’s synagogues with ritual silver. During the eighteenth century, although there was a small community of American Sephardic Jews living in New York and Newport, prejudice against non-Christian beliefs was strong throughout the colonies.