$5.9 Million for a Silver Bowl???

Here is a follow-up to the previous post about my distant cousin, Joshua Loring Jr. Apparently, a silver bowl that once belonged to Joshua's parents has just sold at auction through Sotheby's for $5.9 million! The bowl had been in the possession of the Loring family in England for several generations. Loring relatives later stored it in a London bank vault, where it was rediscovered last year. Here is some information about the bowl from Luxist.com:


"The price for a Colonial-era silver bowl at a Sotheby's New York sale of Important Americana has astounded antiques lovers. The bowl had an estimate of $400,000 to $800,000 but sold for a hammer price with buyer's premium of $5,906,500. The price was particularly amazing considering that no piece of early American of silver had previously sold for more than $1 million. The bidding was reportedly heated with bids over $3 million batted back and forth between two competitors an anonymous gentleman seated in the room and New York dealer S.J. Shrubsole. Eventually the anonymous bidder won setting a record for American silver and locking in the second highest price ever paid for silver at auction

What makes this bowl so special? Created around 1700-1710 it is probably the largest piece of early eighteenth century American silver currently in existence. It has quite a story behind it, the brandywine bowl descended with the Loyalist family of Commodore Joshua Loring since before the American Revolution and just came to light in England last year. Loring left his mansion in the Jamaica Plain area of Boston in 1774 and hid the large bowl in a well. Loring and his family moved to London in 1776. After the Revolutionary War, his son rescued the bowl and took it to England. It stayed in the family for all these years until the family decided to sell. This bowl was sold with two 19th century letters from members of the Loring family that reveal the bowl's history."

It appears that historians and antiques dealers/collectors are still trying to figure out why a silver bowl from the colonial period would fetch such a large sum!

The American Revolution's Public Enemy Number One???

I have long been interested in the Revolutionary War service of various direct and collateral ancestors through my maternal line. It appears that I have several relatives who served on either side of the conflict as Loyalists or Patriots. One of my more intriguing relatives is Joshua Loring Jr. (1744-1789), who is my third cousin, eight times removed. The portrait of him here (Courtesy of Black Pearl Antiques & Fine Art) was painted by John Singleton Copley around 1780. I am related to Loring through his mother, Mary Curtis Loring. A Massachusetts native and former British Army officer, Loring was commissary of prisoners for the British during the American Revolution. Supposedly, his influence was attributed to the rumored affair that his wife had with General William Howe, who was the British commander in North America. Historians have painted Loring over the years as either an inhumane villain or as a well-intentioned individual who did the best he could with the resources he had. Here is a quick biographical sketch:

"LORING, Joshua, commissary of prisoners, born in Hingham, Massachusetts, in December, 1744; died in Edge-field. England, in August, 1789. Served as ensign (1761) and later lieutenant (1765) in the 15th Regiment of Foot. He was high sheriff of Massachusetts in 1768, subsequently mayor of Hingham, and one of those who signed an address to Governor Hutchinson in 1774, and to Governor Gage in 1775, approving their course. One of Gage's last official acts was the appointment of Loring, in June, 1775, as "sole vendue-master and auctioneer." He went to Halifax with the royal army the next year, and early in 1777 was appointed by Sir William Howe commissary of prisoners, toward whom he was accused of excessive cruelty. General Ethan Allen said of him that " he murdered precipitately, in cold blood, near or quite two thousand helpless prisoners in New York." But General Gold Selleck Silliman, in his letters to his wife, describes Loring as having treated him with "kindness, complaisance, and friendship." Other authorities agree that Loring starved prisoners so that 300 died before an exchange could be effected. His wife, Miss Lloyd, of Dorchester, Massachusetts, was a brilliant and unprincipled woman, noted for her extravagance and love of play, at which she occasionally lost as much as 300 guineas at a sitting. Loring owed his appointment of commissary of prisoners to her influence with Howe."

I am very interested to learn more about Loring. Through researching primary and secondary sources, I would be interested to see whether the accounts of him as being cruel and brutal toward Continental Army prisoners were true. The Lorings were a prominent loyalist family in America before and during the war. His father, Commodore Joshua Loring Sr., had been a high-ranking officer in the British Royal Navy during the French and Indian War. All of them had to later flee to England following the Revolution. Many of Joshua Loring Jr.'s descendants went on to distinguished careers in the Anglican Church as well as the British Royal Navy. In my opinion, the Lorings represent a little-known yet fascinating chapter of the American Revolution.