Waste bowl

Engraved with a date of 1795 on the side of each piece, this tea service was created for the wedding of prominent merchant Mr. J.M. Robertson of Connecticut.The combination of bulbous forms, urn-shaped finials, and foliate decorative banding suggests the prevailing taste for neoclassical design and a preference for English silver forms. In 1773 William Garret Forbes joined the Gold and Silversmiths Society in New York, led by silversmith Meyer Meyers. In 1786 he established a shop on Broadway, where he would continue to work until 1810.