THE LIBRARY Indian 'Trade Silver Ornaments made by Joseph %jchardson^ Jr.

URING the past half-century archaeologists have made great I strides in the study of Indian utensils and ornaments. This D work has been carried on generally throughout the United States, wherever Indian mounds are known, and much valuable information has been obtained pertaining to those Indians who originally lived along the Atlantic seaboard and later moved to the western, north-western and southern sections of the country. Many of the Indian trade silver ornaments thus found in the Michigan and Wisconsin districts, as well as those unearthed in the mounds of Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi and Tennessee, seem to have been made by either English or Canadian craftsmen. TKis is quite natural, as the English controlled much of the former territory until after the War of 1812, and their agents were active traders in the southern districts—along with the French—both before and after the Revolutionary War. There was also considerable Indian trade silver, and some intended as gifts, manufactured by silversmiths in New York and Philadel- phia. Little of this has so far come to light, although the best silver- smiths were established in these earlier seats of our national govern- ment. Not only are the pieces themselves very rare, but even the records concerning them seem frequently to have perished. One of the earliest references to such silver is to be found in a letter sent by General Henry Knox, Secretary of War, on February 10, 1782 to Brigadier General Rufus Putnam. This reads as follows: "Besides these goods [Indian supplies] you have delivered to you twenty sets of silver ornaments for such of the principal chiefs as shall come to a pacific agreement, and also nose and ear jewels." On August 16, 1792, Putnam wrote to Knox "and I take with me some of the medals, arm and wrist bands, and other jewels."1 These were un- doubtedly intended as presents. On the organization of the United States government in 1789, Congress soon established "factories" or trading stations in the Indian territory, and thus attempted to control the trade with the 1 American State Papers^ I. 83 84 THE LIBRARY January red men. One of the first was that in charge of Edward Price, located at Coleraine, on the St. Mary's River, in Georgia. Others which sought the trade with the Gulf Indians were at Tellico Block- house in Tennessee; at St. Stephen's, Mobile River (Tombigbee); and at Chickasaw Bluff—the Mississippi Factory. Even so, the British firm of Panton, Leslie and Company, of Pensacola, in Spanish West Florida, sold more goods in the Alabama country than did the "factories" of the United States. And the goods handled at Coleraine by the United States Factory were largely Philadelphia purchases.2 An Act was passed by Congress on March 2, 1795, to regulate Trade with the Indians, and the next day $50,000 was appropriated for the "purchase of Indian Goods." The character of these was apparently not specified, but left to the Commissioners or Trading Station Officers, who, to compete with the English and French sta- tions on our southern and western borders, naturally ordered many silver trade goods which appealed to the Indians. The Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation, in New York City, has recently examined and tabulated all pieces of Indian ornaments in their collection (and there are thousands of them), to ascertain the makers thereof. But in not one instance have they found a piece which can be attributed to a Philadelphia silversmith. In the collection of Mr. H. H. Paulin, now in the Department of Archives at Montgomery, Alabama, are two silver arm bands, about three inches wide by ten inches long, bearing the mark of Daniel Van Voorhis, a New York silversmith, who worked in that city when it was the national capital. On the face is engraved the American Eagle with outstretched wings, bearing on its breast a shield with thirteen stars, and with sun rays behind. Below is the date 1789, the year when a special Commission from Congress was sent to treat with the southern Indians. In the same collection is an oval silver medal, uniface, having in the centre—in relief—a supposed eagle, facing left, with outstretched wings, standing on half a globe. Above is engraved THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA and below G. WASH- 3 INGTON. PRESIDENT, with 1789 in the exergue. This piece is made of a thin sheet of silver with a flange of about one-eighth of an inch, turned down, and was apparently mounted on a thin sheet of wood. 2 Peter A. Brannen, The Southern Indian Trade (Montgomery, 1935), 32, 71. 3 Illustrated in the PENNSYLVANIA MAGAZINE, LVIII, April, 1934. 1943 THE LIBRARY 85 Both the arm band and this medal were found in an old Indian town- site at Tuckabachee, Alabama; and while the arm band bears the mark of Daniel Van Voorhis, no mark is distinguishable on the medal. It is possible the same craftsman made it. Van Voorhis had a shop at No. 7 Queen Street, New York, in 1789, and Congress, sitting in New York at the time, would probably have employed a local craftsman to execute the desired Indian gifts.4 Considerable numbers of silver articles were also sent to the Indians of Pennsylvania and of the Ohio country. In my article on "Indian Silver Ornaments/' published in 1934,5 there were men- tioned 428 arm bands, 330 wrist bands, 127 hair plates, 101 gorgets and 85 large crosses, recorded by the several Indian Agents in Pennsylvania and the Ohio country as having been sent to them by the Colonial authorities in Philadelphia. The only silversmiths found in the records there quoted were John Bayly, Edmund Milne, Joseph Richardson (the elder) and Philip Syng; all of Philadelphia. Much of the information there given was taken from manuscript records in The Historical Society of Pennsylvania. Within a few months after the appearance of this article the Society secured many books of record and manuscript material of the Pennsylvania Indian Commissioners and trading stations in the western portion of the colony. And while this newly acquired material covered many years, there were but four years' records wherein any Indian silver orna- ments were mentioned. This information was incorporated in a booklet by the writer, entitled Indian Silver Ornaments made by 'Philadelphia Silversmiths* Therein were given invoices and records of over 8,300 silver ornaments for Indians, made during the years 1758 to 1762 by three of Philadelphia's silversmiths: Philip Syng, the elder, Joseph Richardson, Sr., and William Hollingshead. These included 502 arm bands, 235 wrist bands, 562 hair plates, 322 gorgets and moons, 206 crosses and 6,500 smaller articles, such 4 Daniel Van Voorhis, Goldsmith, had a shop on the west side of Front Street, six doors below the Coffee-house, Philadelphia, according to his advertisement in the Pennsylvania Packet of April 23, 1782. On December 4 of the same year, he advertised in the New Jersey Gazette that he had moved to Princeton, "a small distance to the eastward of the College." In 1785 he moved to New York City, where after several movings he was at 7 Queen street in 1789; later moving to 141 Broadway, according to Ensko's American Silversmiths and their Marks, 5 PENNSYLVANIA MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY, LVIII, April, 1934. 6 Published in 1936, under the auspices of the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation, of New York City. 86 THE LIBRARY January as ear bobs, hair bobs, broaches (or small buckles), both large and small crosses and rings. And of all those pieces, not one has yet been found in any collection in this country or Canada. What became of them ? Were they buried with the Indians and never recovered from mounds, or were they later melted by the Indians and refashioned into other ornaments ? Considering that American silversmiths usually punched their marks on large pieces, such as arm bands and gorgets,7 moons and the larger crosses, it is rather puzzling that so few Philadelphia pieces have thus far come to light. And these are generally the peace medals, which descended from a Chief to his son. Compara- tively few of even these presentation pieces are known. Of course the smaller articles, such as broaches and ear bobs were too small to have the maker's marks punched thereon. A few such pieces made by Montreal and Quebec silversmiths have been found, but few if any from the shops of New York or Philadelphia. Now, six years after the above mentioned article on Indian trade silver ornaments appeared, the writer has been able to secure photo- static copies from the daybook of Joseph Richardson, the younger,8 covering the period from 1796 to 1801. These show that he too made trade silver for the United States Government to send to the different trading stations, and charged the same to Tench Francis,9 Purveyor of Public Supplies. These charges included 206 arm bands, 328 wrist bands, 114 gorgets, 54 hair pipes, 1,230 ear bobs and 2,487 broaches. Over 4,400 separate pieces of trade silver ornaments are noted, made between June 10, 1796 and June 4, 1798, by this one Philadelphia silversmith. After two years' search through various private and museum collections in this country and Canada, only one piece of such trade silver, bearing the mark of Joseph Richardson, Jr. has come to light. His mark was 1J-RL in a straight-sided cartouche. The mark of his father was I R in a similar cartouche, but. without the pellet between the initials.10 7 Etymologically, the word gorget signifies something to protect the throat. Zoologically it means a coloured patch on the throat. Archaeologically, the word is used to signify certain plates of metal, stone or shell worn as ornaments. These had one or more perforations, usually two holes for suspension by a cord around the neck. 8 Now in the collections of The Historical Society of Pennsylvania. 9 One-time agent for the Penn family, and later the first cashier of the Bank of North America. 1° See Indian Ornaments made by Philadelphia Silversmiths. Pastel miniature of a North American Indian Um-namedi by Ellen Sharpies, in Royal West of England Academy, Bristol, England. (Copyrighted.) Notice the hair pipes, ear bobs and arm bands, all of which were of silver. JS

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u )< 1943 THE LIBRARY 87 This one piece is in the collection of a nearby dealer-collector, who refused to allow it to be photographed, but the writer was allowed to make measurements and take descriptive details. It is a wrist band, measuring 9^ inches long by 2^ wide, ribbed on each edge with scallops in relief. In the centre of the outside of the band is engraved an American eagle bearing a shield on the breast, and with wings and legs extended. In the upper field are fifteen stars, indicat- ing the piece must have been made after Vermont and Kentucky had been admitted to the Union.11 On the inside of this wrist band is plainly stamped the mark of Joseph Richardson, Jr. This piece is undoubtedly one of the wrist bands mentioned in some of the fol- lowing charges to Tench Francis, Purveyor for the United States Government. The Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation, of New York City, has an arm band of almost the identical description, save that it measures 215/16 inches wide, with the fifteen stars above the eagle, and with a ribbed and scalloped edge each side. This institution also has a pair of wrist bands (or bracelets) three inches wide, with the fifteen stars, but minus the scalloped edges. These came to the museum in 1912 from one of the Koasati-Alibamu Tribes in Texas, and might possibly have been from the invoice of July 25, 1797, where many such pieces were earmarked for the Coleraine Factory in Georgia, which traded with the Alabama Indians. Unfortunately neither of these bears the mark of the junior Richardson. But they are undoubtedly his work, as he was then the only known silversmith supplying the United States trading stations with Indian ornaments. Joseph Richardson the younger, was born December 4, 1752, and married June 15, 1780, at Burlington, New Jersey, Ruth Hoskins (1756-1829), daughter of John and Mary (Raper) Hoskins, members of the Friends Meeting there. He carried on the silversmith business at 50 South Front street. From 1776 to 1791 he was in business with his brother Nathaniel, trading as Joseph and Nathaniel Richardson.12 In 1795 Richardson was appointed by President Washington as an assayer of the U. S. Mint, which office he held until his death. He owned a farm at Horsham, which he had pur-

11 By Act of Congress of January 13, 1794, regarding the new Flag: "That the Union be fifteen stars, white on a blue field." Annals of Congress, 1794. 12 See PENNSYLVANIA MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY, LIV, 47-48, June, 1930. 88 THE LIBRARY January chased from Joseph Lukens, as shown by his ledger at The Historical Society. In June, 1801, he was in partnership with Joseph Howell, trading as Joseph Richardson & Company.13 In 1805 Richardson built a house on Market street between Ninth and Tenth streets—then far out of town—where he lived until his death on March 11,1831.14 The first entry in Richardson's daybook pertaining to Indian trade silver ornaments was dated June 10, 1796, and was made out to Tench Francis as Purveyor for the federal government. It relates to a relatively small number of "Indian Bands and Wrist Bands." The next order furnished to Francis was dated October 29, 1796, and related to over 343 ounces of silver worked into 216 large pieces, all of which were undoubtedly stamped with Richardson's "J-R" mark. There were also 474 smaller pieces, which he may or may not have stamped. The arm bands and gorgets (96 in all) had large eagles "chased" thereon and the 120 wrist bands bore smaller Arms of the United States. On December 22, 1796 the charge was for fewer pieces and there was no chasing noted. The next entry, July 25, 1797, was a larger order and this was the only instance wherein the Indian agencies were mentioned—those at Coleraine on the St. Mary's River in Georgia, and at Tellico in southeastern Tennessee. Within five months, on December 2, 1797, another order was entered on the books. There was one more order in 1797. Then on February 1, 1798, Richardson made this charge to Francis :15 oz. dwt. To 14 pr. Silver Wrist bands wt. 18. 9 2/6 £11.10 7# To Engraving 28 Eagles @ 1/3 ea. 1.15 £13.5.7^ To 10 Dozen Broaches 4. o 9/ £ 1.16 To Making ditto @ 7/6 per dozen 5-,II To 8 dozen pair Ear Bobs 6.12 9/ £ 2.19.5 14. 8 I To Making ditto @ 36/ pr. doz. 7-•7-5 £ 2. 4.1 To 14 Silver Hair pipes 4.18 9/ 2. 2. 4-,6.1 To Making ditto @ 3/ ea. £40.10.1^ 13 As shown by an apprenticeship paper wherein Edward Randolph, Jr., aged sixteen years> was taken as an apprentice. This document was owned by Mrs. Aubrey Howell of Philadelphia and was seen by the writer before her recent death. 14 Three Centuries of American Silver (1938), 79. 15 The reader will notice that the charges for this work as entered in Richardson's daybook do not correspond exactly with the original invoice reproduced in facsimile on p. 89. Richardson's charges of April 4, 1798, were for 1,926 pieces of silver weighing more than 310 ounces. This was far the largest order he has recorded; both for quantity and value. Unfortunately we know not where these were sent, nor what tribes received the gifts. But the bill merits printing in order to illustrate the detail as well as the scale of these orders: oz. dwt. To 11 Pair Arm bands (large size) wt. 73. 17 @ 12/6 £46.3.1^ To engraving 22 Arms US on ditto @ 2/ 2. 4 £48.7.1^ To 6 Pair Arm bands (smaller size) wt. 34. 8 @ 12/6 21.10 To engraving 12 Arms U S on ditto @ 2/ 1.4 22.14 To 46 pair Wrist bands 6$. 13 @ 12/6 41. o.j}4 To engraving 92 Arms U S on ditto @ 1/6 6.18. £47.18.7^ To 30 Gorgets 46. 7 @ 12/6 28.19.4^ To engraving 30 Arms U S on ditto @ 2/ 3.0. 31.19.4^ To 50 dozen pair Ear bobs 46. 5 @ 9/ 20.16.3 To Making ditto @ 36/ per dozen pair 90. o. no. 16.3 To 80 Dozen Broaches wt. 31. 9 @ 9/ £14.3 To making ditto @ 7/6 per dozen 30.0 44-3-— To 6 dozen Finger Rings with oval plates @ 9/ 2.14. To making ditto @ 11/3 per dozen 3. 7.6 6. 1.6 To 10 dozen plain Finger Rings wt. 5 9 @ 9/ 2. 9.— To making ditto @ 6/ per dozen 3. 5. 9.— To 18 Hair pipes 6.13 @ 9/ 2.19.10 To making ditto @ 3/ ea. 2.14.— 5-I3-IO £323.2/8^ 9O THE LIBRARY January This entry is interesting for several reasons. Prior to this, Richard- son had charged for chasing or engraving the eagle on the gorgets, arm and wrist bands. Of course we visualize the American eagle as we now know the country's insignia. But in this instance he uses the expression "Engraving Arms U S." Likewise the cost of the various pieces is interesting. Even the small ear bobs cost three shillings each, and the hair pipes—little silver tubes two or three inches long—more than four shillings per piece. The next and final entry of silver goods to be charged to Francis was that of June 4, 1798. This was not for Indian ornaments, and it seems rather odd that spoons should have been purchased by the government. It reads: oz. dwt. gr. To 2 dozen Tea spoons wt. 12. 12. 6 £8.13.— To 2 dozen ditto 11. 16. . 8. 6.2 To 2 dozen ditto 12. 17. 8.15.8 To engraving 6 doz. Cyphers @ 7/6 2. 5. £27.19.10

What the "cyphers" were is not revealed and why Francis, as Purveyor, ordered them is not divulged by Richardson's books. They were paid for in December following, and credited to the "Purveyor" account. Tench Francis died on May 1, 1800, and was succeeded as Pur- veyor by Israel Whelen. On October 25, 1801, Richardson made out the following bill to Whelen: To engraving Arms U S on 6 Gorgets @ 2/ £0.12. To ditto on 6 Arm bands @ 2/ 0.12. To ditto on 6 Wrist bands @ 1/6 7.6 £1.11.6 The books do not show that Richardson made these pieces. It is possible that these were the work of Jean Baptiste Dumoutet, another Philadelphia silversmith. The latter had advertised in the Philadelphia Qazette andT>aily ^Advertiser of November 7,1800, that: "He has ready for sale one thousand ounces of Sterling Silver Indian Ornaments, which he will dispose of on reasonable terms." But no pieces bearing his maker's mark have thus far been identified. Dumoutet's "Jewellery Manufactory" at that time was at 55 South Second Street, at the corner of Chestnut Street. This is now the site of the Corn Exchange National Bank. I943 THE LIBRARY 9I To return to Richardson, it should be added that he was a most versatile silversmith, and made everything for use in the home, such as tea, coffee and chocolate pots, tankards and cans for the thirsty, tea, dessert and table spoons for the table, labels for decanters, punch strainers, and ladles as well as punch bowls; pin cushion bands, chains, thimbles of gold and silver for the thrifty housewife; pap spoons for invalids and babies, as well as whistles and bells for the infant prodigies of his clients. One of the tankards made for a customer weighed 46 oz. 11 dwt. and cost, with engraving of two cyphers, £35-18-3. Merchants and banks bought his scales and weights. Among the purchasers were the Bank of Pennsylvania, Bank of the United States, Bank of North America, and the Bank of Rhode Island. The latter was charged £49-6-10 for an elaborate large scale beam in a mahogany stand with drawers. An interesting side light on the times is shown by an entry in Richardson's daybook for 8th mo. 21st, 1797, which reads as follows: "N.B. The Yellow Fever spreading amongst the Inhabitants of this City, I removed with my family to Burlington & my Business was suspended until I returned on the 25th of 10th Mo. 1797." As there were no entries between 8th mo. 15th 1799 until the 26th of 10th mo. of same year, it may be assumed that he again left the city on account of the yellow fever. To go through this daybook and note the names of Richardson's customers, is almost like perusing the "Social Register" of the time. One sees the names of prominent Philadelphians—both of the Friends and Churchly people—which indicates he was making silver for many of the "first families" of the Quaker City. One reads of such families as the Aliens, Anthonys, Baches, Barclays, Biddies, Binghams, Burds, Cadwaladers, Chews, Cressons, Dickinsons, Drinkers, Fishers, Fraziers, Hares, Hollingsworths, Lewis, McCalls, McKeans, Morris, Powels, Shoemakers, Tilghmans, Wains, Wistars, Whartons and Willings. And like a country vendue notice, "others too numerous to mention." Qermantown, Philadelphia HARROLD E. GILLINGHAM