Live Auction 2091Important American Silver
A FINE SILVER SUGAR URN
Lot 155PROPERTY OF A DESCENDANT OF THE ORIGINAL OWNER

A FINE SILVER SUGAR URN

MARK OF PAUL REVERE, JR., BOSTON, CIRCA 1800

Closed17 January 2008

Price Realised

USD 58,600

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A FINE SILVER SUGAR URN
MARK OF PAUL REVERE, JR., BOSTON, CIRCA 1800
Of urn form, on pedestal foot with beaded border and bright-cut engraving, body bright-cut engraved with floral festoons, urns and oval cartouches on both sides enclosing monogram CC, the domed cover with bud finial, marked on body
9¾ in. high; 14 oz. 10 dwt.

The sugar urn was made for a member of the Cooper family of Boston, and descended to the present owner through:

Capt. William P.S. Sanger (b. May 26, 1810), of Boston
Elizabeth Sanger, married John Seton Johns (b. December 22, 1835), of Washington, D.C.
William Sanger Johns (b. 25 December 1862), of Georgetown, D.C., thence by descent to the present owner

Capt. William P.S. Sanger was the U.S. Navy's first civil engineer and the father of the modern Civil Engineer Corps. A Bostonian by birth, he moved to Norfolk, Virginia, where at age 17 he became Resident Engineer at the Gosport Navy Yard in Portsmouth. He was responsible for the building of the Gosport stone dry dock, the Navy's first dry dock in the United States, completed in 1833. Sanger served as an engineer for the U.S. Navy for nearly 55 years, and was responsible for the founding of the Civil Engineer Corps through an Act of Congress in 1867.