Caster
The marks on George Washington's cruet stand and this caster indicate two different silversmiths made them twenty years apart. The fact that the stand's maker, Jabez Daniell, served his apprenticeship with Samuel Wood, who crafted the caster, perhaps explains this combination. The weight of the silver in Washington's 1757 invoice listing the cruet stand and the invoice's mention of only two glass bottles indicate two additional matching casters completed the ensemble. All five vessels were engraved with Washington's crest at the time of his order. The casters contained dry condiments such as ground pepper and mustard.
See also cruet stand, W-2518, and cruets, W-2523/A-B.
In cruet stand W-2815 with two cruets W-2523/A-B.
Published ReferencesCarol Borchert Cadou, The George Washington Collection: Fine and Decorative Arts at Mount Vernon (New York: Hudson Hills Press, 2006), 38-9, cat. 1.
Martha Gandy Fales, "The Silver," Antiques 135, no. 2 (February 1989): 520, 522, pl. VII.
Kathryn C. Buhler, Mount Vernon Silver (Mount Vernon, VA: The Mount Vernon Ladies' Association of the Union, 1957), 12-14, title page and fig. 1.