John Dean Benton Art for Sale and Sold Prices

b. 1823 - d. 1890

Benton was a trained jeweler and silversmith who worked from about 1855 to 1863 in Providence, RI. He married Caroline Manchester on July 8, 1845 in Providence, RI.

In 1864, the Bentons may have moved to Wilmington, Delaware in 1864, for he is listed as a jeweler in that town from 1874-1973. After his Wilmington years, Benton worked as a jeweler between 1874-1877 in Philadelphia. In 1878, the Bentons returned to Providence where he worked as a jeweler from 1878 to 1885. In the 1880 census, Benton's profession was listed as a model-maker.

Benton became renowned as a model maker. He made gold and silver models of famous railroad engines, including the Charles Morgan and the Daniel Webster for the Pennsylvania, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroads. Benton’s best-known model is perhaps the S.S. Commonwealth, made in 1864 and now in the Mariner’s Museum in Newport News, VA. This model was originally presented to the ship’s captain, Jerome Wheeler Williams by the Norwich and New London Steamboat Company.

Benton passed away in 1890. His wife, Caroline, passed away in 1913.