- On View
- Slavery and Freedom Gallery
- Museum Maps
- Objects in this Location
- Exhibition
- Slavery and Freedom
- Manufactured by
- Fountain, William, English
- Date
- 1807
- Medium
- sterling silver with gold wash
- Dimensions
- H x W x D: 4 1/4 × 7 1/2 × 4 1/4 in. (10.8 × 19.1 × 10.8 cm)
- Caption
- These pieces, much like those they would replace in Slavery and Freedom, represent the deadly plantation economy in the New World that satisfied the international demand for sugar, which became a staple in the English tea industry. They also represent the financial success that sugar brought to successful slave owners, financiers, slave traders, sugar merchants, and the lifestyle maintained by sugar consumers in the United States. Sugar, Britain’s largest import, was also the focus of one of the first anti-slavery boycotts after the abolition bill was rejected by British Parliament in 1791. The boycott attempted to put economic pressure on the slave-dependent industry of sugar, hastening the end of the trade.
- Description
- A George III sterling silver sugar bowl with interior gold wash by William Fountain, London. It has an oval shaped body with two silver semi- curved handle. The rim flares outwards slightly and is decorated with the same repeating pattern as the teapot and coffee pot. There are two handles on either end of the bowl that are curved on the long side and flat on top. The upper body of the bowl is smooth while the lower half is decorated by fluting in sections. Etched into the upper half of one side of the bowl is an image of a large bird, possibly a pelican with a fish in its mouth. On the opposite side of the bowl is an image of a lion rampant, with a scroll over its head. In the scroll is text that reads "Forward." The bowl has an oval foot with four points, one at each corner. Each point is formed from a crease in the metal that runs vertically up the body of the body of the bowl. The bowl has a gold washed interior. The exterior bottom of the bowl has two numbers scratched intot he surface "12145" and "1003."
- Classification
- Decorative Arts, Craft, and Design
- Type
- sugar bowls
- Topic
- British colonialism
- Commerce
- Cooking and dining
- Design
- Domestic life
- Economics
- Slave trade
- Slavery
- Sugarcane
- Credit Line
- Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture
- Object number
- 2020.32.5.4
- Restrictions & Rights
- No Known Copyright Restrictions
- Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.




