Milk Pot

Art Historical Context

This elegant silver milk pot, crafted in 1850 by John C. Moore for the renowned New York firm Ball, Tompkins and Black, exemplifies the refined domestic silverware popular in mid-nineteenth-century America. Standing just over eight inches tall, the vessel reflects the period’s taste for graceful forms that elevated everyday rituals like tea or coffee service into moments of quiet luxury. Its presence in the Metropolitan Museum’s American Wing highlights how such objects embodied both utility and aspiration in growing urban households. The pot’s surface features delicate motifs of grapes and flowers, rendered with the precision possible only through skilled hand-chasing and engraving on silver. These natural elements evoke abundance and seasonal beauty, common decorative choices that connected the home to the natural world. As a gift to the museum in 1969, the piece continues to offer visitors a tangible link to the craftsmanship and social customs of antebellum New York.

About the Artist

John C. Moore|Ball, Tompkins and Black (American|American) · 1839 |1799 –1851 |1874

active 1839–51|ca. 1802–1874