A monumental American silver covered jugAndrew Ellicott Warner, Baltimore circa 1845, stamped A.E. WARNER in serrated rectangle, 11 with superscript 2 over horizontal line in rectangle Substantial cylindrical form, the tapering neck featuring a flared lip with rolled edge topped by an s-shaped hinged cover, surmounted by a cast and applied naturalistic strawberry finial with accompanying leaves, to the side a high mounted angular fluted handle emerging from two pairs of applied foliage and berry mounts, the whole decorated with high and low relief repoussé work and intricate chasing, featuring a variety of motifs including oriental temples, junk boats on choppy water, village scenes with traditionally dressed villagers, prunus, coconut trees, diaper work and elaborate scrolls both top and bottom, mixed foliage and flowers, juxtaposed against a textured matted ground, a vacant cartouche to the front, all on a plain circular base, height 32.5cm, diameter 13cm, weight 57.5oz.Footnotes:ProvenanceOwned by the Edmondson family of Baltimore and thence by family descent.Lot ResearchThe Metropolitan Museum in New York, Fifth Avenue, has a stylistically similar 'Milk Pot' and other comparable items by Andrew Ellicott Warner on view in the American Wing, Gallery 774. What makes this lot on offer so rare is its large size and despite thorough research, nothing resembling the capaciousness of this jug has to date been found.Andrew Ellicott Warner Sr. (1786-1870) was one of Baltimore's most celebrated silversmiths. He was a skilled craftsman and provided stiff competition for Samuel Kirk (1793-1872) during the second quarter of the nineteenth century. Warner contributed to the popularity of silver work featuring excessive repoussé ornamentation, a style that defined Baltimore silver amid that time period. In his working lifetime, Warner generated eleven different maker's marks and in addition, his son Andrew Ellicott Jr. (1813-1896) created three of his own maker's marks. Each mark's use sometimes overlapped the time span when other Warner marks were also employed, so dating items after 1830 can only ever be approximate. Baltimore tried to enforce an official assay mark system from 1814 to 1830, but instigation proved unsuccessful and implementation ceased. Hence after 1830 only the maker's name and the figures indicating silver purity were stamped on a silver item, applied by the maker rather than an official body. Regarding the Baltimore usage of the '11' standard mark, 'numerical quality marks first appear after the passage of the 1830 Assay Law ... The new law required silver that was not assayed to be marked with a numeral which indicated the amount of silver contained per troy pound of twelve ounces. Thus, the numerical quality mark '11' refers to the Old Baltimore assay standard alloy composed of 11 ounces of pure silver to 1 ounce of base metal'. Under Baltimore Statutes and Ordinances in February 1830, the standard mark '11' indicates that the item has to have a minimum fineness of 91.7% pure silver content. These marks can be seen on the Baltimore silver entered into the current auction.Andrew Ellicott Warner Sr. (1786-1870) was the second son of Cuthbert Warner and Ann Smith, and was born in Harford County, Maryland on November 27, 1786. He learned his trade from his father, a watch maker and silversmith, who had moved to Maryland at the close of the Revolution, and then on to Baltimore in circa 1798. In 1805, Andrew E. Warner formed a partnership with his eldest brother Thomas Warner, opening a silversmith shop at 5 North Gay Street. This partnership was dissolved in 1812, the same year Warner married Dorothy Litsinger of Baltimore, with whom he had several children. He also participated in the War of 1812, commissioned as a captain in the Maryland Militia, and consequently took part in the Battle of North Point in 1814. From 1812, 'Andy' Warner, as he was known, had his working premises located at his former shop at 5 North Gay Street, working continuously there at his forge and anvil until his death in 1870. His son, Andrew E. Warner Jr. carried on his father's profession, moving the shop to 135 West Baltimore Street until his retirement in 1893.If you were a prestigious family in Baltimore during the nineteenth century, it would have been a symbol of status to purchase your silver (an indicator of wealth and class) from the two pre-eminent silversmiths of the day - either Andrew E. Warner Sr. or his rival Samuel Kirk. The Edmondson family of Baltimore were one such family, and it is their collection of silver which is on offer today. The Baltimore silver items listed, from Lot 206 to 211, were commissioned by the Edmondson's in Baltimore in the nineteenth century, and have been handed down by descent to the current owner.The original purchaser was Dr Thomas Edmondson, who was born in 1808 as the son of a prosperous local merchant, graduating in medicine from the University of Maryland in 1834. He never practiced medicine, but instead focussed on art and horticulture, building a grand mansion and greenhouses on a hill now bounded by Edmondson Avenue, Harlem, Fulton and Mount. Dr Edmondson died in 1856 and his estate presented a section of the property to the City of Baltimore on November 11th 1867, as a gift for the creation of a public park or square. 'Harlem Park' was dedicated in 1876, and still exists in modern-day Baltimore as a testament to the Edmondson family.LiteratureJennifer Faulds Goldborough, Martha Gandy Fales and Patrick M. Duggan, 'A. E. Warner Gold and Silversmiths', accessed via www.nutmeggraters.com, Investigation Profile #7Jennifer Faulds Goldborough, 'Silver in Maryland Catalogue and exhibition Paperback', 1983J. Hall Pleasants and Howard Sill, 'Maryland Silversmiths 1715-1830', originally published 1930, (New York: Robert Allan Green reprint, 1972), pp.193-200Eli Pousson, 'Harlem Park', Explore Baltimore Heritage, accessed via https://explore.baltimoreheritage.orgFor further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com