A Peter Bentzon Silver Pap Bowl, St. Croix and Philadelphia, circa 1810-20 Marks: P. BENTZON 1-1/2 x...

Description

A Peter Bentzon Silver Pap Bowl, St. Croix and Philadelphia, circa 1810-20
Marks: P. BENTZON
1-1/2 x 4-3/4 x 2-5/8 inches (3.8 x 12.1 x 6.7 cm)
69 grams (2.21 troy ounces)

Born on the island of Saint Thomas in the Danish West Indies, Peter Bentzon (c. 1783–after 1850) stands as the only early American silversmith of African descent whose work is identifiable by a personal hallmark. Born free to an Afro-Caribbean mother and a European father, Bentzon was sent to Philadelphia as a child, where he received formal schooling and later apprenticed as a silversmith. By 1806 he had completed his training and returned to Christiansted, St. Croix, establishing a shop that produced flatware, hollowware, and jewelry.

Bentzon's career unfolded across two worlds. He moved repeatedly between the Caribbean and Philadelphia, marrying into a prominent family of free people of color and raising a large household while building clientele in both regions. His work reflects the restrained Federal and early Classical styles popular in Philadelphia silver of the early 19th century, while his Caribbean practice also included more modest repair and trade work.

Bentzon marked his silver with "P. BENTZON" or "PB," and fewer than thirty surviving examples are known today. Most are small flatware, but two teapots—one in the National Museum of African American History and Culture (Smithsonian) and another in the Saint Louis Art Museum—demonstrate his mastery of hollowware design. The rarity of his work is further underscored by its market history: only a handful of objects with his mark have appeared at auction, among them a silver nutmeg grater dated 1810–1820, which realized $40,000 at Sotheby's in 2021.

By the late 1820s Bentzon was again working in St. Croix, but he returned to Philadelphia in the 1840s, where he appears in the 1850 census with his family. Beyond that record, little is known of his later years or death. What remains certain is his exceptional legacy: a rare, documented voice of a free Black craftsman within the history of American silver.



Estimate: $10,000 - $15,000.

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