Lot 127: A RARE AMERICAN SILVER CASTER, JOHN FITCH, TRENTON, NJ, CIRCA 1775

weight
5oz 6dwt (168g)

measurements
height 6 1/2in. (16.5cm)

of baluster form on circular foot, the domed cover pierced and engraved with lattice panels and flame finial, base engraved S V V C, marked in center of base J·F in rectangle

NOTE

John Fitch (1743-1798) first established himself in Trenton in May, 1769 after having worked as a watch repairer and brassworker in his home town of East Windsor in Hartford County, CT. He received his silversmith training through John Wilson, and shortly after was able to purchase Wilson's tools and take over the remnants of his business, which had apparently failed as a result of Wilson's alcoholism.

By 1776, Fitch had created a successful business and had hired additional nine journeymen producing all varieties of hollowware vessels in addition to sword hilts and military equipment. In the summer of that year he joined Captain William Tucker's company as a lieutenant, and was named armorer of his battalion. In December, before the Battle of Trenton, Fitch's King Street shop was ransacked and destroyed by the British. He fled to the Ohio River Basin where in March, 1782 he was captured by Indians on the Muskingum River.

It was during his time as a prisoner that he first developed the concept of a steam powered ship. Fitch's first steamboat was built in 1787 and featured a rack of canoe paddles inspired by those used on Indian war canoes. Fitch was unable to gain monetary support from George Washington, but did receive funding from private investors. In 1790 he launched a revamped version of his steamboat, and was granted a US patent a year later. While Fitch's ships were mechanically successful, they failed commercially.

Penniless and prone to bouts of severe depression, Fitch eventually followed in his mentor John Wilson's footsteps and turned to alcohol to relieve his woes. He died in Kentucky having taken a "Roman's remedy for the ills of life". Although Fitch's account books indicate that his shop in Trenton was prosperous and his journeymen amply supplied with commissions there are few know surviving examples of his work. As of the publication of Silversmiths of New Jersey, 1700-1825 in 1949, Carl M. Williams recounts that only three cream pots, eight tablespoons, two teaspoons and a sugar tongs have been attributed to Fitch's shop.