Myer Myers, New York silversmith.(Brief Article)

Myer Myers of New York City is one of the most deservedly esteemed colonial American silversmiths. Now thanks to meticulous research by David L. Barquist, Myers and his considerable surviving output have been placed in the context of contemporary craftsmen working in pre-Revolutionary New York City. Barquist's findings appear in an excellent exhibition catalogue that accompanies a traveling show entitled Myer Myers: Jewish Silversmith in Colonial New York, on view at the Yale University Art Gallery in New Haven, Connecticut, from September 14 through December 30. The show comprises 104 silver and gold objects created by Myers or the partnership of Halsted and Myers as well as nineteen objects by contemporary New York silversmiths, twenty-four portraits of some of Myer's patrons, synagogue documents, and maps.

Myers was born in 1723 New York City, where he was not only a successful silversmith but also an influential figure in the Jewish community, particularly as one of the heads of the Congregation Shearith Israel, whose excellent archives date to 1654, the year it was founded. These archives are the primary source for factual information about Myers's life. While 380 objects marked by him survive there are few letters and no account books or other documents related to what was surely a large workshop. However, since so much of his output is known, it can be surmised with reasonable assurance that he was the leading silversmith in pre-Revolutionary New York and that he employed specialist craftsmen such as engravers and chasers as well as apprentices and shop assistants.

It is not known with whom Myers trained, but Barquist posits that his requisite seven-year apprenticeship began in 1738, because he was sworn in as a freeman one year after he finished his training, as was customary at the time. His earliest surviving silver is in the Anglo-Dutch style. Shortly thereafter he worked in the baroque idiom as practiced by immigrant Huguenot silversmiths. For this reason, Barquist thinks it highly likely that he apprenticed with Charles Le Roux, who might also have taught him the rudimentary elements of engraving--simple things like block initials used to identify the owner. This was particularly important when silver was stolen (and numerous newspaper advertisements of the period confirm this). Owners cited their initials in order to more easily reclaim it. For more complicated decorative engraving, specialists were engaged.

By the mid-1750s the rococo style had taken root and this coincided in an increase in Myers's commissions. The French and Indian War ...