Author Description

This massive biographical dictionary presents the most thorough study of a group of early American craftsmen published to date. It contains biographies of 296 silversmiths and jewelers who worked in Massachusetts before the American Revolution, records more than 6000 examples of their work, and illustrates 424 of their marks. It completes and amplifies research undertaken at Yale since the 1930s when John Marshall Phillips (1905-53), the leading scholar of American silver of his generation, acquired the research notes of Francis Hill Bigelow (1859-1933), a pioneer in the field. There are brief biographical notes on 93 craftsmen in allied trades, including watchmakers, clockmakers, and engravers, and a section on persons previously misidentified as Massachusetts silversmiths, as well as essays on silversmiths and their tools, Boston silversmithing and jewelrymaking trades, and other Massachusetts silversmiths. A glossary of terms relating to tools and craft techniques, 193 additional illustrations, a chronology of the craftsmen, and a full index complete the book.